Tribunal Sacked Governor Sani of Kaduna State? Important Things to Know
The Kaduna State governorship election petition tribunal has dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Isah Ashiru, filed against Governor Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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According to Channels Television, two of the three judges of the three-man panel delivered the judgment on Thursday, September 28. The panel, headed by Justice Victor Oviawie, dismissed the petition on the ground that the pre-hearing notice was filed out of time.
Source: Twitter
Why tribunal dismiss the appeal of Ashiru of PDP in Kaduna?
Two of the judges posited that the appeal of the PDP and its candidate, Ashiru, brought against the dismissal of their petition at the preliminary stage by the first and second defendants did not have merit because of the filing of the pre-hearing notice they abandoned and out of time, adding that this affected the entire petition.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported that the tribunal said if the petition were not dismissed, it would have declared the election inconclusive and ordered a supplementary poll in 22 polling units within 90 days.
APC and PDP lay claim to the victory of the judgment
However, there was confusion on who was the victor in the judgment as both the PDP and the APC claimed victory at the tribunal.
This led to the widespread of fake news that the tribunal had sacked Governor Sani and ordered a supplementary election in some polling units.
Governor Sani, on his part, while featuring on Channels Television's "Politics Today", hailed the tribunal for dismissing the application of the PDP and Ashiru.
The governor said:
“I was happy after the NEC meeting when I heard that the tribunal dismissed the PDP’s application against the election. Of course, I was not surprised because, throughout the tribunal sitting, our lawyers were briefing me about what was happening.”
Ashiru, in his reaction, said the tribunal nullified the election of Sani and ordered a rerun while still nothing that he would be appealing the judgment.
His comment reads in part:
“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.”
Here is the full statement of Ashiru:
APC lawyer says court agrees PDP and Ashiru abandoned their petitions
Barrister Sunusi Musa, one of the APC counsel, maintained that the tribunal agreed with their defence that the PDP and its candidate, Isah Ashiru, abandoned their petition as far back as May 30.
Musa further explained that the Nigerian constitution empowers the court to investigate the dismissed matter. That was where the court agreed that there were 22 polling units in which elections were cancelled, and INEC should have declared the election inconclusive.
He then concluded that the tribunal said assuming the PDP and Ashiru had filed their petitions on time, the court would have ordered a supplementary election in the 22 polling units.
See the video of the lawyer here:
Kaduna Tribunal: PDP’s witnesses ended up proving I won, Gov Sani claims
Legit.ng earlier reported that the Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has disclosed that the PDP witness has confirmed that he truly won the March 18 governorship election.
Sani said, through his lawyer, Chief Bayo Ojo, the former AGF, that the PDP witness made the confirmation before the Kaduna State governorship election tribunal.
The witness is Boness Gwazah, a senior system analyst (SSA) of the VR/ICT Department of INEC in Kaduna State.
Source: Legit.ng
