Judiciary
THE National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal for Yobe, sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by Mr Isa-Suleiman Aminu, over failure to prove its case.
Aminu, candidate of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) for the Feb. 23 House of Representative election for Bade/Jakusko Federal Constituency, Yobe, prayed the tribunal to order for a fresh election on the ground that his party logo was omitted from the ballot paper used for that election.
According to the petitioner, by the virtue of the omission of his party logo on the ballot the paper, Mr Zakariyau Galadima of the All Progressives Party (APC), who was declared winner for the election did not win at all.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, the petitioner party, GPN, is however contending the candidature of Aminu on the premise that he was not the original candidate meant for that election.
His party had disassociated itself from the petition during the proceedings, arguing that his candidature was illegal and that he was not nominated by it.
Justice Emmanuel Osagie, a member of the tribunal who read the judgment, dismissed the petition on the grounds that the petitioners failed to successfully prove the petition.
“The petitioner has failed to prove to the tribunal that he was validly nominated by his party, issue one is hereby resolved against the first petitioner.
“The prayer he sought from the tribunal cannot be granted, the petition is hereby dismissed,’’ the Judge said.
In another development, the tribunal equally fixed Sept. 4 to deliver judgment in the petition filed by Sen. Mohammed Hassan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) urging the tribunal to declare him senator for the Yobe South Senatorial District.
Hassan dragged Sen. Ibrahim Bomoi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the tribunal alleging that the Feb. 23 election that returned him as the winner of the Yobe South Senatorial District was marred with irregularities.
Adopting his written address, Mr Paul Erokoro, SAN, counsel for the petitioner stated that the lawful votes cast during the election was far below what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared for the election.
According to Erokoro, findings shows that the lawful votes cast during the elections places his client (the petitioner) to scoring 37,429 votes as against 28,765 votes scored by the respondent.
Erokoro stated that the 118,729 votes declared for the APC candidate against 89,049 declared for PDP candidate was not the true reflection of what transpired during voting.
He urged the tribunal to declare his candidate as the true winner of the election going by the irregularities perceived during the election.
Meanwhile, Mr Kehinde Akinlolu, SAN, counsel to the respondent prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition while adopting his written address, adding that his candidate truly won the election.
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-NAN
BE
– July 31, 2019 @ 16:25 GMT /
Tags: Bade/Jakusko Fed. Const.:Tribunal dismisses GPN’s petition
