A’Court Voids Supplementary Election Order in Kaduna

* Affirms Uba as governor

Alex Enumah in Abuja

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal on Friday, voided the order of the Kaduna State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for a supplementary election.

The appellate court voided the order for supplementary election while delivering judgment in two separate appeals by Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Isa Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While the three-member panel led by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio dismissed the appeal by Ashiru for lacking in merit, it held that that of Sani was meritorious and subsequently allowed it and grant the reliefs requested by the governor.

Consequently, the panel affirmed the election of Uba Sani as Governor of Kaduna State and set aside the judgment of the tribunal which had declared the election that produced Sani as governor inconclusive.

In voiding the decision of the lower tribunal, Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, who delivered the unanimous judgment, held that the evidence relied upon by the tribunal to declare the election inconclusive were manifestly bad, unreliable and ought not to have given any probative value.

According to the judgment, the evidence the tribunal acted upon in ordering the conduct of supplementary polls in 22 polling units of four local government areas (LGAs) of the state where the exercise was deemed inconclusive was inadmissible.

Besides, the appellate court held that a key witness called by the PDP at the tribunal merely gave hearsay evidence because he was not present when the malpractices he alleged happened.

Meanwhile, the court held that the tribunal was right in dismissing the petition of the PDP and Ashiru because the petitioners abandoned their petition, owing to their failure to apply for issuance of pre-hearing information sheet after close of pleadings as required by paragraph 18(1) of the first scheduled to the Electoral Act, 2022.

Other members of the panel who agreed with the lead judgment are James Abundaga and Mohamed Idris.