The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has reinstated Joshua, the son of Prof. Jerry Gana, as the House of Representatives member representing Edati/Lavun/Mokwa Federal Constituency of Niger State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared the younger Gana as winner of the election with 47,942 votes while the candidate of All Progressive Congress, APC, Abdullahi Gbatamagi was said to have scored 40,003 votes.
Gbatamagi had contested the INEC return of Joshua Gana at the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal, which sacked Joshua in its judgement and ordered a rerun in some polling stations.
Gbatamagi, while challenging the election results, alleged electoral malpractice and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022 in the conduct of the election.
The tribunal led by Justice Sylvester Godspower-led Tribunal had held that the margin of lead at the poll was less than the permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in the disputed polling units where elections were cancelled.
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The tribunal then reduced Gana’s votes to 46,494 while that of Gbatamagi was stood at 39,159 votes, thereby ordering a fresh supplementary election in the 26 polling units within 90 days.
Gana however approached the Court of Appeal, which in its judgment delivered by Justice Daniel Kahiru, held that any evidence wrongly admitted in a Tribunal is a serious issue and an appellate court has the duty to expunge such documents.
The Justices held that a written witness statement on oath must accompany a petition for such an evidence to be admissible in law, but noted that did not happen in the instant case at the Tribunal.
Its judgment, the Appellate court ruled that the evidence relied upon to sack Gana was incompetent, set aside judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Minna, and allowed the appeal to succeed, thereby affirmed the election victory of Joshua Gana as a duly elected member of the Federal House of Representatives.
Editor: Ken Eseni
