Court okays continuation of collation of Tafawa Balewa LG results in Bauchi State

A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the permission to continue the collation of results for the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

The election was earlier declared inconclusive by INEC but the Commission later said it would continue with the collation.

Unsatisfied with INEC’s decision, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the incumbent Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, dragged INEC to court to stop the collation.

But Justice Inyang Ekwo who ruled on the matter on Monday said, “the defendant (INEC) should be allowed to continue its constitutional duty”.

“There is no legal impediment before the defendant to go on with the decision of the defendant to execute its decision in its press release.”

Read also: SITUATION ROOM TO INEC: Do away with supplementary elections

The APC, and Abubakar, who is seeking a reelection argued that INEC could not rescind its earlier decision to hold supplementary election in the local government without the backing of an order of court.

But INEC had insisted that only the Election Petition Tribunal had the jurisdiction to hear the matter since the election had already held in part.

Meanwhile, Justice Ekwo ruled that the High Court and the Election Petition Tribunal had the jurisdiction to review the decision of INEC to reverse its earlier decision to conduct a supplementary election in Local Government Area until the final results of the election are announced.

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