Appeal Court Sacks Taraba PDP Senator
The Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, on Tuesday, upheld a tribunal’s ruling, sacking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Bashir Marafa, as senator representing Taraba Central Senatorial District.
Recall that the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Taraba State, had on September 30, nullified the election of Marafa and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue Certificate of Return to All Progressives Congress candidate, Yusuf Abubakar.
Delivering the September 30 judgement, the tribunal had held that the election of Marafa could not stand as he did not score the lawful majority votes in the March 28 election.
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The tribunal therefore ordered INEC, to return Abubakar as the candidate that scored the majority lawful votes during the polls.
Following the ruling, Marafa appealed the tribunal’s decision, but in their respective judgements that lasted over two hours, the three judges, Justice Jummai Hanatu Sankey, Justice Duobele Abraham and Justice Ridwan Maiwada agreed that the appeal lacked merit.
They upheld the decision of the lower court sacking Marafa.
