The Election Petition Court sitting in Kaduna State, on Saturday, affirmed Senator Lawal Usman as the winner of the Kaduna Central Senatorial Election in the state.
The tribunal dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressive Congress candidate, Abdullahi Muhammad-Sani. Sani had challenged the election of the PDP senator on four grounds.
The grounds were on the issue of school certificate forgery, over voting, non-compliance and the issue of nomination and sponsorship of the first respondent by his party.
The three-man panel led by Justice H.H Kereng stated that all the arguments presented by the petitioners had failed and were dismissed.
“The elections and return of the first respondent is hereby affirmed. This petition is hereby dismissed,” he ruled.
Justice Kereng stated that the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the first respondent’s NECO results and other school certificates were forged.
He added that the petitioners also failed to prove that the first respondent was not duly elected by majority of votes in the February 25 polls.
“The APC got 182035 votes while PDP got 225066 votes giving a margin of 43031. The petitioners have failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the respondent didn’t get majority votes.
“Therefore, this issue is in favour of the first respondent and against the petitioner,” he said.
On the issue of non-compliance, Kereng also stated that the petitioners couldn’t prove that there was non-compliance which affected the elections results.
He continued that the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidate was the responsibility of the political party and not for the court to resolve.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the ruling, the Personal Assistant to the Senator, Jalal Falal, appreciated God for the victory, saying the outcome of the judgement had validated the senator’s election.
He urged the opposition to join hands with the Senator to work for the progress and development of the people of Kaduna Central Senatorial zone.
