Tribunal sacks Plateau Assembly speaker

The National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Jos, Plateau State on Friday nullified the victory of Moses Sule in the March 18 election held in Mikang State Constituency.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Sule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Na’anlong Daniel.

The PDP candidate is the Speaker of the state House of Assembly.

Daniel, a former Majority Leader of the House, challenged the outcome of the election over alleged fraud and non-compliance with the electoral act in the conduct of the election by INEC.

He also alleged that the respondent was not validly nominated by the PDP for the election.

In its ruling, the three-member panel headed by Justice Mohammed Tukur agreed with the petitioner that Sule was not validly nominated for the election by his party.

Justice Tukur, who read the judgement, held that PDP had no structure in Plateau State at the time of the election hence all the votes scored by the party in the election were wasted votes.

He declared Daniel as the winner of the election and ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return from Sule and issue a new one to the APC candidate.

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