The Supreme Court will on a date to be communicated to parties give judgment in the appeal by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sadique Abubakar, challenging the judgment of the Court of Appeal which affirmed Bala Mohammed’s election, in the March 18, 2023 poll.
When the matter came up for final addresses at the apex court on Thursday, the counsel for the appellant, Owonikoko (SAN) told the justices to set aside judgement of the lower court, arguing that the Election Petition Tribunal failed to make a pronouncement on the invalid electoral documents tendered as evidence before it.
The counsel for INEC submitted that the Tribunal only found blank spaces in some of the electoral forms and not on all the forms, as there was no evidence of forms that were improperly filled.
Chris Uche (SAN), counsel to Governor Bala Mohammed in his own submission, urged the five-man panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro to dismiss the appeal, noting that the appellants never brought any witnesses to speak to the electoral documents tendered at the Tribunal.
The Supreme Court however reserved judgment, after listening to the submission of the lawyers.
The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal had on November 17, 2023 affirmed the election victory of Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State prompting the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Sadique Abubakar to approach the Supreme court.
(Editor: Ken Eseni)
