BAUCHI: APC Loses As Supreme Court Affirms Gov Bala Mohammed’s Re-Election

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Sadique Abubakar, against the judgment of the Bauchi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Governor Bala Mohammed’s election.

The apex court held that the APC and its candidate failed to prove the case of substantial non-compliance to the Electoral Act by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had on November 17 dismissed the APC’s case, affirming the election of Governor Bala Mohammed of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The legal team of the APC candidate had urged the appeal court to declare Mohammed’s election null and void because several electoral documents used during the poll were not properly filled.

But Mohammed’s lawyers maintained that the assertions were untrue, given the findings of the Tribunal.

The appeal court went on to declare that the APC candidate failed to provide credible evidence and testimony to buttress his allegations regarding electoral malpractice and non-compliance to relevant laws.

The court subsequently dismissed the appeal.

The APC candidate’s lawyer, Abiodun Owonikoko moved up to the apex court, urging them to set aside the judgements of the two lower courts, arguing that the tribunal failed to make pronouncement on the invalid electoral documents tendered as evidence before it.

INEC counsel, Mohammed N., told the apex court that the tribunal only found blank spaces in some of the electoral forms and not on all the forms.

The lawyer said there was no evidence of forms that were improperly filled at the tribunal.

Counsel for the governor, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, asked the five-man panel of the apex court chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro to dismiss the “needless appeal”.

Uche said the appellants never brought any witnesses to speak to the electoral documents tendered at the tribunal.

“They did not have materials to support their case,” Uche argued, asking the court to dismiss the appeal.

Reading the lead judgment of the five-man panel of the apex court on Friday, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa (who prepared the lead judgment), agreed with the lower courts that though the non-sensitive electoral materials in dispute had some blank spaces, it could not have affected the entire polls in the state and the spread of votes garnered by the governor.

Moreso, Saulawa said he agreed with the concurrent findings of the lower court on the fact that the APC witnesses filed inadmissible evidence at the lower court.

The judge added that the appellants did not discharge the burden of proof required of them to win their case.

Subsequently, the judge, in a unanimous, dismissed the APC candidate’s case.

“The appeal is entirely devoid of merit and is hereby dismissed,” the judge said while affirming the governor’s election.