Kaduna Division of the Court of Appeal today upheld the election of Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, as Governor of Kaduna State in the March 9th, 2019 gubernatorial election.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Isah Ashiru had filed an appeal before the court, challenging the decision of the lower tribunal, which declared El-Rufai winner of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier declared El-Rufai as winner of the contest.
But the PDP and its candidate petitioned the tribunal on the grounds that the election was flawed with massive fraud and irregularities.
They asked the tribunal to cancel a total of 515,951 votes, which they claimed were unlawfully added to the APC as well as 124,210 unlawful votes, which they said were also added to the PDP, through wrong or double entry on the result sheets by INEC.
The five-man panel of Appellate court Judges on Thursday unanimously affirmed the decision of the lower tribunal and declared El-Rufai as the truly elected Governor of the state.
In the same vein, theAppeal Court in Owerri today upheld the electoral victory of Senator Rochas Okorocha, of Imo West senatorial district.
The chairman of the panel, R.A Ada, who read the judgment said that the appeals filed by Senator Osita Izunaso of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Jones Onyereri of the Peoples Democratic Party against Okorocha lacked merit.
The jurist contended that the judgment of the lower court (Tribunal) which upheld Okorocha’s election was in order.
The panel said that the petitioners could not prove their allegations of violence, over-voting, mutilation of electoral results and hijacking of electoral officers.
The justice said that the petitioners could not prove the allegation of duress as the returning officer alleged.
Okorocha had on February 23 defeated Onyereri and Izunaso but the returning officer alleged that he declared Okorocha winner under duress.
