The Abuja Division of the Appeal Court has affirmed the election of Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress as Governor of Kaduna State.
The court in its lead judgement, delivered by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, upheld the verdict of the Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal, which validated Governor Sani’s election, noting that the tribunal was right in its majority decision when it declared the petition by the PDP and its candidate as an abandoned project.
According to the appellate court, the petitioners acted in breach of Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 when they prematurely applied to the tribunal for the issuance of a pre-hearing notice, which according to the court, such must be filed seven days after the close of pleadings by the parties.
The appellate court also maintained that statements on oath that were made by most of the witnesses who testified for the Appellants were invalid as they were not filed alongside the petition, as failure to frontload statements of the witnesses within the 21-day as prescribed rendered them legally incompetent
The court said it was satisfied that the tribunal properly evaluated the evidence that was adduced before it by the parties and accorded probative value to them.
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It resolved all the five issues that were raised in the appeal, against the Appellants.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that Governor Sani, who was the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, garnered 730, 001 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Ashiru, who polled 719, 196 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal challenging the decision.
The tribunal, however, in a two-to-one split judgement, delivered on September 28, dismissed the petition on technical grounds and upheld Uba’s election victory.
(Editor: Anoyoyo Ogiagboviogie)
