APC Loses in FCT as Court Upholds PDP Candidate AMAC Chair

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The FCT Area Council Election Appeal Tribunal, has upheld the election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hon. Christopher Maikalangu, as Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

In a unanimous judgement, the three-man tribunal, comprising Hon. Justice S. B Belgore (Chairman), Hon. Justice Yusuf Halilu (member 1),  Hon. Justice Jude O. Onwuegbuzie (member 2) dismissed the August 5 judgment of the FCT Area Council Election Tribunal, which declared Hon. Murtala Usman Karshi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election held on February 12.

In their judgement, the justices noted that the ruling of the lower tribunal was not only evil, but negated all the achievements recorded in Nigeria’s democracy.
Justice Yusuf Halilu who read out the lead judgment in suit FCT/ACEAT/AP/01/22, said the lower tribunal erred by ignoring contradictory evidence before it and did a hatchet job by declaring Karshi winner of the election.

“We have seen the evidences supplied by both the appellant and the respondents to the lower tribunal. The witnesses listed by the APC as supervisors in the disputed polling units admitted that they were not polling unit agents. It has become critical for us to ask questions at this point on what the process of collating results connote.

“Can collation be done without polling units results? It is indeed a process of an election that votes are cast at polling units, results collated by electoral officers and results announced to the hearing of all. If that is the case, who then is the proper person to be called in the event that there is a complaint anchored on wrongful collation of results? Is it the ward supervisor or a polling unit agent? The answer is a polling unit agent,” Justice Halilu said.

He said the evidence of the supposed polling unit agents, who were not at the disputed units, fell within the evidence of hearsay or documentary hearsay, which arose, when someone who was not privy to the origin of a document sought to prove its content by oral documentary.
His words: “The petitioner failed woefully to prove its claim, arising from what was made at the lower tribunal. Elections are won at polling units and not at law courts. Our duty as court is to make judicial pronouncement.

“The law cannot command an impossibility. The essence of justice is to do what is true and what is correct. INEC official certified the forms used in the election, you can then ask where the petitioner got his own form. This is for another day.

“The judgement of the lower tribunal is not only bad, but evil and a travesty of justice. Minority must always have their say, but majority must be allowed to have their way. Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated.

“Law may not change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. The attitude of the lower tribunal is tantamount to unsettling the tenets of law and turning it on its head. This is not good for our democracy. We have not seen any reason or reasoning that led to the decision in issue.”

Addressing journalists after the judgement, AMAC Chairman, Maikalangu, said the judiciary was the last hope of the common man, and thanked the tribunal for defending democracy.