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Tribunals Sack Two Reps,  Uphold Al-Makura’s Election 

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Tribunals Sack Two Reps,  Uphold Al-Makura’s Election 

Tribunals Sack Two Reps,  Uphold Al-Makura’s Election 
August 31
08:42 2019

The son of former Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau, Mr. Shamsudeen Dambazau has been sacked as member representing Sumaila/Takai Federal Constituency by the Election Petition Tribunal in Kano, Kano State.

This is as the  tribunal sitting in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, yesterday upheld the election of the immediate past governor of the state, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected senator of Nasarawa South senatorial district during the 2019 general election.

Also, another lawmaker Abdulkadir Umar Sarki, the Member Representing Katagum Federal Constituency, Bauchi State on the platform of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has been sacked  from the House of Representatives..

Dambazau, who did not contest the election but came second in the APC primaries, got the mandate when a Federal High Court in Kano disqualified a former presidential aide, Kawu Sumaila, in a pre-election suit.

The tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a certificate of return to Surajo Kanawa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 Dambazau had sued INEC, APC and Mr. Sumaila challenging the nomination of the latter as the candidate of APC. He is the son of former Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau.

In her ruling, the three-man tribunal, led by Justice Onyekan Abdullahi, adopted the position of the Supreme Court on such matter and disqualified Sumaila on the grounds that he did not participate in all the preliminary stages of the election processes.

“We hold that, if a Tribunal or court found out that a candidate did not participate in any stage of the election process, the Tribunal has no option other than to declare the next candidate with the highest number of votes, as the winner in the election. “Consequently, Suraj Idris Kanawa, being the next candidate with the highest number of lawful votes cast is the right candidate to be declared the winner in the Takai/Sumail Federal House of Representatives election, held on March 23, 2019. “Notice is hereby given to INEC to declare the First Petitioner, as the winner and issue a certificate of return to him.

“Suraj Idris Kanawa is, therefore, the winner of Takai/Sumaila Federal House of Representatives election, which the Tribunal has upheld,” the judge concluded.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel for the Petitioner, Tijjani Yahaya, said the judgment was an affirmation of the supremacy of the rule of law and a signal to politicians to always abide by the provisions of their party constitutions and other laws of the land.

Also in his reaction, counsel to Sumaila,  Dr. Nasir Aliyu, said his client, Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila, as a law-abiding citizen and had accepted the ruling of the court and had no plans to appeal the judgment.

In a unanimous judgement read by its chairman, Justice David Ugoh, in the petition against Al-Makura, the tribunal found no merit in Suleiman Adokwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) petition as according to Justice Ugoh, “the petition has no substance. We therefore dismiss the petition for lacking in merits.”

Reading out the judgement, the tribunal chairman held that the petitioners had failed to lead credible evidence in support of the petition, maintaining that the petitioners’ agents had signed the results in form 8(a), (b), (c) (d) and (e) tendered before the tribunal.

Justice Ugoh said: “The petitioners have failed to dislodge the petition of irregularity in favour of the declared result by INEC. The petitioners did not lead credible evidence to show that their agents were forced to sign the results. They also failed to tender result duplicates, or otherwise, which did not conform to the original in the custody of the third respondent (INEC).

“The petitioner has failed to link all the exhibits they tendered to the case, which were also tendered from the bar. They failed to call polling unit agents to cover all polling units in contention, and the petitioners called only three agents in an attempt to prove their case. They also failed to prove how the alleged non-compliance affected the election.

“The respondents called four witnesses and proved that the election was conducted in accordance with the electoral act of 2010 and the regulations and guidelines for the conduct of 2019 elections. Exhibits tendered by the petitioners clearly showed that the first respondent (Al-Makura) won the election.

“The first respondent won clearly and was rightly declared as winner which the petitioners have not been able to dispute the fact. By the provision of section 139 (1) of the electoral act 2010 as amended, election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance.

“We hold in the end that in the case of the parties into the election of the Nasarawa south senatorial district held on February 23, 2019 was free, fair and was conducted in accordance with the provision of the electoral act 2010 as amended,” the tribunal chairman said.

A three-man panel presided over by the Chairman, Justice Bello Tukur in a unanimous judgment sacked Sarki on grounds that the elections ought to have been declared inconclusive as there were cancellation of results in Seven Polling units wherein the number of total registered voters exceed the margin of lead between the candidate returned as elected and the runner up. 

The Tribunal further ordered a rerun election and withdrawal of the Certificate of return issued to the Member earlier returned by INEC as winner. 

Ibrahim Mohammed Baba of the APC had filed the petition challenging the declaration and eligibility of the PRP candidate as the winner in the last NASS election.

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