Tribunal: Taraba Speaker’s Election Nullified
Fatimah Abdullahi
The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Jalingo, Taraba State capital on Wednesday nullified the election of the State House of Assembly Speaker Abel Peter Diah.
Speaker Diah is representing Mbamga constituency of Sadauna local government council in the State House of Assembly.
Setting aside the election, the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to set aside the Certificate of Return it issued the Speaker as winner of the poll.
It ordered rerun in eight polling units in 90 days.
The petitioner’s lead counsel, Festus Idepefo, submitted that the election was conducted in nine of the 48 polling units of Bamga constituency in “non compliance with the Electoral Act 2010” which states that an election must start with accreditation.
The respondent filed a counter defense, challenging that the conduct of the election in six of the polling units that gave his opponent majority of the votes were not credible.
The tribunal ruled that the APC candidate presented both oral and documentary evidences to support his allegation in eight of the nine polling units it claimed the election was characterised by irregularities.
But, that Speaker presented only documentary evidences (without witnesses) to substantiate his claim, which did not meet the burden of proof, as enshrined in the Electoral Act.
Justice AM Ali, a member of the panel who read the judgment, thus, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Emmanuel Bongo winner of the election.
INEC had declared the Speaker winner with 8,272 votes and Bongo as runner up with 6,691 votes.
According to the judgment, the APC candidate polled 6,695 votes while the PDP candidate (Speaker) scored only 5,651 votes.
The tribunal, however, declared the election as inconclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a rerun in eight polling units of Mbamga constituency in 90 days, on the grounds that the difference in votes between Bongo and Diah is not up to the number of voters defranchised in the affected areas.
Reacting to the judgement, Taraba State Chairman of APC Jika Hassan Ardo said:
“We shall continue to present evidences with facts and figures to show that APC is more popular in Taraba state. The people of Mbamga constituency should remain calm and wait patiently for the supplementary election”.