The Supreme Court, on Friday in Abuja, affirmed the election of Governor Nasir Idris as duly elected governor of Kebbi State.
The Informant247 reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the state election inconclusive following cancellation and overvoting in some Local Government Areas.
Meanwhile, the electoral umpire on April 15 conducted a supplementary election with Idris, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scoring 409,225 votes to defeat Aminu Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 360,940 votes.
Dissatisfied with the election outcome, Bande approached the tribunal, where he alleged that there was over-voting in some polling units and that Idris was not qualified to contest the election.
The tribunal deducted 1,735 votes from APC, while over 900 votes were subtracted from PDP’s results.
The deduction, however, did not affect the election of Idris.
The Appeal Court, sitting in Abuja on Friday, upheld the election of Nasir Idris as duly elected governor of Kebbi State.
Justice Ndukwe Anyannwu-led three-member panel, in a unanimous judgment, held that the appeal by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, General Aminu Bande, lacked merit, adding that all the five issues formulated for determination in favour of the governor and against PDP.
Displeased with the tribunal verdict, the Bande headed to the Appeal Court, where Justice Ndukwe Anyannwu-led three-member panel of the Appeal Court upheld the election of Nasir Idris as duly elected governor of Kebbi State.
Justice Anyannwu, in a unanimous judgment, held that the appeal by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, General Aminu Bande, lacked merit, adding that all the five issues formulated for determination in favour of the governor and against PDP.
He also held that the allegations of forgery of testimonial brought against Deputy Governor Abubakar Umar Tafida were not established as required by law, adding that the issues of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 in the conduct of the election could not stand because the appellants failed to prove how the allegations substantially affected the election.
Justice Anyanwu subsequently affirmed the judgment of the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had earlier dismissed the petition of PDP and affirmed the election of the governor.