The Kaduna governorship election petitions tribunal has
upheld the victory of Uba Sani as the governor of the state.
The three-man panel via Zoom on Thursday affirmed Sani’s
victory on “technical grounds”.
The panel in a two against one dissenting verdict ruled that
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Isah Ashiru, filed their petition out of time and
therefore considered abandoned.
The tribunal led by Victor Oviawie had dismissed the case on
the grounds that the pre-hearing notice was filed out of time and therefore
considered abandoned.
The tribunal affirmed that the petition was filed on April
10, 2023.
Two members of the panel held that the appeal brought by PDP
and Ashiru against the dismissal of their petition at the preliminary stage by
the first and second defendants was lacking in merit.
However, the tribunal noted that if the petition had not
been dismissed for lack of merit, it would have ordered a supplementary election
in 22 polling units within 90 days in the substantive judgement.
The PDP and its candidate were challenging the declaration
of Sani, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the
March 18 governorship election.
The electoral umpire had declared that Sani secured 730, 001
votes to defeat his closest rival Ashiru of the PDP who scored 719, 196 votes.
Corroborating the ruling of the tribunal, Mohammed Lawal, one of the counsels of the PDP,
admitted that the opposition party filed its petition late.
“What actually happened was that APC raised an objection
about our petition that we filed out of time. But the position of the Electoral
Act is that the tribunal must go into the nitty gritty,” Lawal said.
“Now they found that there is the need for rerun in 22
polling units in four LGAs.
“We cannot activate that as inconclusive unless we appeal
against that decision that declared our petition abandoned. The final decision
of the court has two arms, that is what confused people.
“One declared our petition as abandoned, the second decision
declared the election inconclusive but, that inconclusive decision cannot be
activated unless the decision declaring the petition abandoned is appealed
against and set aside.
“So technically the tribunal declared the petition abandoned
and dismissed it.”
THE CONFUSION
While the tribunal admitted that the PDP petition could have been admitted as valid on the merit of the case, the panel ruled that the pre-hearing was abandoned, which knocked it out technically.
Many had interpreted the explanation of the merit of the
PDP’s case as the ruling declaring the election as inconclusive and calling for
a rerun.
But the Kaduna governor lauded the decision of the tribunal
affirming his election.
In a statement, Sani said, the judgment was an “unequivocal
affirmation of the popular mandate given to him by the people”.
“I am extremely delighted and humbled by the ruling of the
Election Petition Tribunal affirming my victory in the 2023 Kaduna State
Governorship Elections,” the statement reads.
“I commend the tribunal for their thoroughness and lucidity.
They have enriched our jurisprudence and practice of electoral democracy.
WE’LL APPEAL– ASHIRU
The PDP candidate has said that the ruling would be appealed while appealing to his supporters to remain law-abiding.
Ashiru in a statement, assured the people of Kaduna that he
would pursue the mandate they gave him to its logical conclusion.
“Given the ruling of the Kaduna state election tribunal, it
has become necessary to share with our teaming supporters, the true position of
the ruling,” the statement reads.
“On the preliminary objection, the tribunal, based on the
majority of 2:1 judges upheld the preliminary objection of the respondent to
the effect that the application for pre-hearing was done prematurely i.e. before
the service of the last set of petitioners’ reply to the 2nd respondent’s reply
to the petition was served.
“However, the law enjoins the tribunal, as a trial court, to
proceed to pronounce on the merit of the substantive suit so that in the event
the court of appeal finds that the trial tribunal was wrong in its decision on
the preliminary objection, it would have the benefit of pronouncing on the
decision of the tribunal in the substantive matter.
“Accordingly, the trial tribunal finds merit in the aspect
of the petitioner’s case relative to the margin of win between the two leading
candidates.
“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.
“I want to again thank the people of the state while urging
them all to remain law abiding while we pursue the appeal process.”
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