The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja and Owerri on thursday affirmed Mr. Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as winners of the April 11 governorship elections in Taraba and Abia States, respectively.

The Abuja appellate court, in its judgment, set aside the decision of the state Election Petitions Tribunal, which sacked the Taraba governor from office based on pre-election matters.
Delivering judgment on the three appeals and cross-appeal that emanated from the judgment of the tribunal, which sat in Abuja because of security concerns in the North-east, a five-member panel of justices headed by Justice Abdul Northerner set aside the ruling of the tribunal.

Justice Northerner, who read the unanimous judgment, held that it was a gross misdirection for the tribunal to have declared the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mrs. Aisha Jumai Alhassan, also known as “Mama Taraba”, winner of the gubernatorial poll on the basis that she scored the second highest number of votes in the election.
The court also held that from the evidence of witnesses to the petitioners before the tribunal, Ishaku was validly elected and sponsored by his party, the PDP, to vie for the governorship seat of the state in accordance with the constitution, the Electoral Act and in accordance with the election guidelines as laid down by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Therefore the judgment of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal is hereby declared null, void and set aside in its entirety.
“The appellant’s appeal is meritorious and is hereby allowed,” Justice Northerner held.
The judge went further to affirm “Darius Dickson Ishaku as the dully elected governor of Taraba State”.

According to the court, APC and its governorship candidate, who were the first and second respondents in the appeal, had no locus standi under the law to challenge the primary election of the PDP, which produced Ishaku as its candidate for the election as none of them is a member of the PDP.
It also held that INEC superintends the activities of political parties and if there was any breach or failure of the PDP to give the electoral body 21 days notice of its primary as alleged, it should not have been the headache of the APC and its governorship candidate, adding that the only person that could have complained of the conduct of a party’s primary election was the person who participated in the said primary election and INEC.

According to the court, the Electoral Act specifies the procedures for the election and sponsorship of a candidate by a political party and that the right to complain is limited to participants in the primary election.

The Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar-led tribunal, had in a petition filed by APC and Alhassan, held that the purported nomination of the governorship candidate by PDP breached Section 85 of the Electoral Act and ordered Ishaku to vacate his office.
Justice Abubakar had in a judgment ordered that Alhassan be sworn in as governor because the PDP did not conduct a valid primary that threw Ishaku up as its standard-bearer.
The tribunal however held that the APC governorship candidate could not adequately prove her allegation of “over-voting, irregularities, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2010”.

Source: http://damytechs..com/2016/01/acourt-affirms-otti-ishaku-duly-elected.html?m=1

Wow