The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, affirmed the election of Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, dismissed an appeal the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru, filed to challenge the outcome of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18.
In its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, the court upheld the verdict of the Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal, which validated Governor Sani’s election.
It held that the tribunal was right in its majority decision when it declared the petition by the PDP and its candidate as abandoned.
According to the appellate court, records before it established that the petitioners acted in breach of Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 when they prematurely applied to the tribunal for the issuance of a pre-hearing notice.
Noting that the law provided that such an application must be filed seven days after the close of pleadings by the parties, the court waved aside the argument of the Appellants that they acted “out of the abundance of caution.”
It held that vigilance in prosecuting a matter could not be equated with jumping the gun, adding that one of the essential elements for the exercise of jurisdiction by a court “is that a case must be initiated by due process of the law.”
Besides, the court maintained that statements on oath that were made by most of the witnesses who testified for the Appellants were invalid as they were not filed alongside the petition.
It held that the failure to frontload statements of the witnesses within the 21-day prescribed for filing the petition rendered them legally incompetent.
More so, the appellate court held that most of the witnesses who testified for the petitioners gave hearsay evidence.
It resolved all the five issues that were raised in the appeal, against the Appellants.
“The appeal lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed. Parties are to bear their respective costs,” the court held.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that Governor Sani, who was the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, garnered 730, 001 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Ashiru, who polled 719, 196 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the result of the election, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge it.
The Petitioners alleged that Governor Uba was not duly elected by a majority of valid votes cast in the election, adding that the election was invalid because of corrupt practices and noncompliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
They alleged that some polling unit results were wrongfully cancelled, insisting that there were inconsistencies in accreditation records from INEC.
However, the tribunal, in a two-to-one split judgement it delivered on September 28, dismissed the petition on technical grounds and upheld Uba’s election victory.
The Justice Victor Oviawie-led tribunal, in its majority decision, said it deemed the petition abandoned, noting that the PDP and its candidate did not file their pre-hearing application within the time prescribed by the law.
