Kaduna tribunal dismisses petition against PDP’s Tanimu Musa

The National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Kaduna State has upheld the election of Tanimu Musa as the member representing Kachia constituency in the state House of Assembly.

Samuel Hardware of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had filed a petition before the tribunal challenging the victory of Tanimu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9 election for Kachia constituency.

The three-man panel of the tribunal chaired by Justice Adamu Suleiman, in its judgement on Monday, unanimously dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

The judgement read by Justice Daniel said that the petitioner failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the respondent did not win the election.

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“The petition must contain a prayer, which was not included, hence the petitioner falls short of relief,” it said.

It said that the petitioner did not present the figures representing the alterations he alleged in all the polling units.

The tribunal added that the petitioner had also failed to call credible witnesses to defend his case, adding that no substantial proof had been given by the petitioner.

In the ruling, the tribunal stressed that the result of the election presented by INEC was presumed authentic unless otherwise proven.

It, therefore, said the petitioner had failed to discharge the burden of proof of electoral malpractices against the defendant, and as such dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

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