Tribunal Verdict: Where Propaganda Failed in Kaduna

Nasir Abdu Chikaji takes a second look at Kaduna Election Tribunal’s affirmation of incumbent Governor Uba Sani’s electoral victory and opposition PDP’s post-verdict propaganda

The gang up and conspiracy by few elements in Kaduna State who lost out at the March 18 governorship election to hoodwink members of the public into believing that the hard won victory of Governor Uba Sani can be upturned through some chicanery fell like a pack of cards.

On Thursday, even before the Kaduna Election Petition could read out its judgement, the agents of propaganda went to town with the false claim that the tribunal had upturned the victory of Uba Sani and ordered a a rerun in seven polling units in four local government areas in the state.

The story was a carefully designed strategy to cause confusion by deceiving the public while giving the erroneous impression that the PDP candidate, Isa Ashiru, who lost at the polls stands a chance of bulldozing his way into the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.

But no sooner had the news spread than the public go to know what actually transpired at the tribunal which was far from what was conveyed by the propandagists.

Rather than order the removal of Uba Sani as claimed, it was later established that the tribunal actually dismissed the petition of the PDP candidate based on the fact that it was filed out of time.

This is because as at the tine the tribunal heard the matter, the petition had no legs to stand on and did not exist in the eyes of the law.

Based on the precedence set by the court the tribunal offered a glimpse of what it could have done if the circumstances were different and that was when it opined that had the case being filed on time and not dismissed, the tribunal could have ordered for a rerun in 22 polling units in the state.

It was that hypothetical posturing merely done to enrich the judicial process in case of an appeal but unfortunately, the PDP and it’s candidate latched unto that hypoto spread the fake news that the tribunal had ordered a rerun.

The statement by the pdp candidate that
“The tribunal by a split decision of 2:1 accordingly, nullified the election of the governor of Kaduna state, ordered that the Certificate of Return be retrieved and fresh elections be conducted in some polling units in 4 LGAs and the outcome thereof be reckoned with before the declaration of the winner of the governorship election in Kaduna state,” is therefore not only erroneous but misleading.

The true position of things is that the tribunal had dismissed the petition by the governorship candidate of the PDP challenging Sani’s victory in the 18 March governorship election in Kaduna state because it lacked merit.

As Governor explained there is no confusion about the Kaduna State tribunal judgement.

“As I said some of us that have been involved in the draft of the electoral law know that there is nothing like confusion there. The case was dismissed because it lacks merit. The preliminary objection was made out of hand.

“There are a lot of cases like this. We are not here to talk about propaganda. There are two things here: you either win a political battle or you win a propaganda battle.”

Hence the petition remains dismissed on the ground that it was filed out of time. If it had been filed within time, it would have been declared inconclusive because the votes cancelled were more than the votes with which the Governor defeated the PDP candidate. But since the petition was filed out of time, it is assumed that it died on arrival and has no basis in law.