Supreme Court dismisses appeal against Kebbi gov’s election

The appeal against the election of the Kebbi State governor, Nasir Idris, was, on Friday, dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The appeal brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the March 18 governorship election in Kebbi, Aminu Bande, was dismissed in an unanimous decision by a five-member panel for lacking in merit.

In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the Supreme Court held that it found no reason to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which declared Nasir of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the valid winner of the gubernatorial poll.

Ripples Nigeria recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the Kebbi State governorship election inconclusive owing to massive vote cancellations and over-voting in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state.

The Commission subsequently conducted a supplementary election on April 15, at the end of which it declared that Governor Idris of the APC polled 409,225 votes to beat Bande of the PDP who got 360,940 votes.

READ ALSO:Gov Idris signs Kebbi 2024 budget of N250.1bn

The PDP and Bande, however, approached the tribunal to challenge the result.

In its judgement, the Justice Ofem Ofem-led tribunal dismissed the petition as lacking in merit.

The decision of the tribunal was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, which held that the appellants failed to establish all the allegations they raised in their petition.

According to the court, the allegation of forgery levelled against the Deputy Governor of the State, Abubakar Tafida, was not proved as required by the law.

It further held that the issues of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election could not stand since the appellants failed to show how it substantially affected the outcome of the poll.

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