The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Bala Mohammed as Governor of Bauchi State.
Thelagostimes recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Bala of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, winner of the March 18 governorship election. However, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Sadique Abubakar rejected the outcome of the election and sought redress in the court.
The Bauchi State Governorship Election Tribunal had dismissed the APC candidate’s petition, upholding the election of Bala. Sadique further dragged the matter to the appeal court, insisting that the March 18 poll was marred by irregularities.
However, ruling on the matter on Friday, the panel of three justices, who were unanimous, upheld the verdict of the tribunal.
The presiding judge, Justice Chidi Nwaoma Uwa, read the judgment in the order of the appellant’s plea before the appeal court.
On plea number one, the appellant pleaded that the election be nullified because the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled. The court ruled that the appellant failed to prove this allegation with the needed evidence.
The court also ruled that the appellant failed to state the polling units involved in the said allegations and that he was unable to state what was missing in the forms. It further held that the appellant was unable to prove how the said improperly filled forms affected the results of the election.