The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna on Monday affirmed the election of Malam Nasir el-Rufai as the duly elected Governor of Kaduna state in the March, 2019 gubernatorial polls.
Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice Ibrahim Bako, while dismissing the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Isah Ashiru in his ruling, said Ashiru was unable to prove his allegations of massive rigging and other electoral irregularities against the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor el-Rufai before the Tribunal.
The Vice Chancellor, Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Mohammed Bello, who was the INEC returning officer, had declared that el-Rufai polled 1,045,427 to defeat his closest rival who is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Isa Ashiru, who scored 814,168.
Following the declaration of el-Rufai as the winner of the poll, the PDP candidate had filed a petition before the tribunal citing that irregularities marred the conduct of the March 9, governorship election in Kaduna state and asking the Tribunal to declare him winner of the election.
However, the Tribunal ruled that the petitioner was unable to provide substantial evidence to prove his allegations, even as it notes that the petitioner did not present any factual evidence to prove INEC wrong in returning el-Rufai of the APC as duly elected.
The tribunal however dismissed the petitioner’s case challenging the governorship election for lacking in merit.
Meanwhile, chairman Kaduna state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hassan Hyet, has indicated that his party will appeal the Tribunal’s judgement upholding governor el-Rufai’s election.
