Just in: Tribunal declares Kaduna governorship election inconclusive

The Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal has declared the 2023 governorship election in the state inconclusive.

This was the decision of the judges on Thursday.

INEC is expected to conduct fresh elections in seven political wards.

The verdict was announced via Zoom after the judges shunned the physical hall.

The petition was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Isah Mohammed Ashiru.

In a split decision with a 2:1 ratio, the tribunal instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days in 7 wards across 4 Local Government Areas.

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PDP is challenging the declaration of Governor Uba Sani as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

Senator Sani polled a total of 730,001 votes to defeat his closest rival Ashiru who scored 719, 196 votes.

The Labour Party (LP) candidate, Jonathan Asake came a distant third with 58,283 votes, while Suleiman Hunkuyi of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) scored 21,405 votes.

While the LP and NNPP accepted the outcome of the election, the PDP and its candidate rejected the results of the election, alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the wrong candidate winner of the election.

PDP and Ashiru alleged that there was massive irregularities and manipulation of results in favour of Governor Sani in some local governments by the INEC.

According to them, Senator Sani did not score the highest number of valid votes cast in the election and ought not to have been returned winner of the election by the INEC.

In June 2023, PDP and Ashiru however filed a petition at the election petition tribunal to challenge the election of Governor Sani.

The party’s legal team led by Oluwole Iyamu, SAN, accused the INEC of manipulating the election results in favour of Sani.

Among those in court for the APC include the deputy governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, the state party chairman, Emmanuel Jekada, the Chief of Staff to the governor, Sani Liman as well as the secretary to Kaduna State government, Balarabe Abbas.

Also present is the Kaduna State PDP chairman, Hassan Hyet and the former deputy governor of Kaduna State, Nuhu Bajoga.