The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has made a significant ruling by setting aside the judgment of the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Yola, Adamawa State. The lower court had affirmed Mohammed Salihu as the duly nominated candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to contest for the last House of Representatives election in the Girei/Yola South/Yola North federal constituency.
Mohammed Salihu had previously won the election, but his victory was challenged by Abubakar Baba Zango and the All Progressives Congress (APC). They contended that Salihu was not qualified to run for the National Assembly elections due to alleged forgery of his primary school certificate and birth certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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Abubakar’s legal team argued that the election of the PDP candidate should be nullified based on these grounds, and they requested that INEC issue Abubakar a certificate of return as he had emerged as the second runner-up in the election.
However, the lower tribunal, during its previous judgment, dismissed Abubakar’s petition. The tribunal chairman, Justice Aloysius Okuma, stated that Abubakar failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate the certificate forgery allegations, particularly in the area of name variation.
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Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s ruling, Abubakar’s lawyer, F.K. Idepefo, took the case to the Court of Appeal, seeking to set aside the judgment and declare his client as the House of Representatives member for the disputed constituency.
Idepefo argued that the justices of the election tribunal had misunderstood the case, emphasizing that the issue was not about name variation but about the alleged forgery of certificates presented to INEC.
In a significant development, the Court of Appeal accepted the appeal filed by Abubakar against Salihu, concurring that the certificates presented by the PDP candidate were indeed forged.
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The Court of Appeal held, “Judgment of the lower Tribunal is hereby set aside,” while granting all the reliefs sought by the appellants. This ruling marks a significant turn of events in the ongoing legal battle over the contested House of Representatives seat.
