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KWARA: Tribunal sacks APC lawmaker, party kicks

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The National and State Assemblies Election Petitions Tribunal on Monday declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Salihu Mohammed Gada, as the winner of the Patigi State Constituency by-election in Kwara State.

The tribunal nullified the victory of Adam Rufai of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election held on March 14.

The election was held to fill the seat which became vacant following the death of Rufai’s brother, Saidu Ahmed, in December last year.

However, APC has rejected the ruling of the tribunal.

In his reaction to the development, the Publicity Secretary of APC in the state, Folaranmi Aro, said the judgment was based on the difference between “Adam” and “Adama” on the party candidate’s certificate.

He said in a statement that the PDP never called any witness from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to substantiate its claim that the APC candidate was not the owner of the certificate he tendered for the election.

READ ALSO: Kwara APC accuses Gov Abdulrazaq of fuelling crisis in state chapter

The statement read: “The tribunal did not deny that we won the election overwhelmingly. It instead hid under a feeble excuse that the names of our candidate on the two certificates he presented to the electoral body are slightly different from each other to award our mandate to the opposition.

“It was a sad day for democracy as the judgment was a slap on thousands of electorates who stood in the sun to make their choices.

“This judgment is a violent attack on the position of the Supreme Court in many established cases where an alphabet was either omitted or added to a candidate’s name. We are definitely going to appeal the judgment because it signals danger for our democracy and amounted to stealing the mandate of the people. The judgment is a judicial subversion of the people’s mandate.”

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