The Election Petition Court, Kaduna State on Saturday affirmed the election of Sen. Lawal Adamu-Usman of the PDP as Senator representing Kaduna central.
The petition which was filed by the All Progressive Congress, APC candidate, Abdullahi Muhammad-Sani is challenging the election of the PDP senator, on four grounds.
The grounds were on school certificate forgery, over voting, non compliance and the issue of nomination and sponsorship of the first respondent by the PDP.
The three-member panel led by Justice H.H Kereng dismissed all the grounds presented by the petitioners.
“The elections and return of the first respondent is hereby affirmed. This petition is hereby dismissed,” he ruled.
Earlier, the judge 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’ had 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’ has 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, the judge also stated that the petitioners couldn’t prove that there was non compliance which affected the elections results.
He added that the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidate was the responsibility of the political party not court while resolving issue in favour of the respondent.
While speaking with journalist, the personal assistant to the Senator, Jalal Falal appreciated God for granting them victory saying the outcome of the judgement had validated the Senator’s Election.
He urged the opposition to join hands with the seating Senator to work for the process and development of the people of Kaduna Central.
NAN
