Tension as Appeal Court sacks PDP Speaker

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has sacked Abubakar Suleiman, the speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly.

According to Daily Trust, the court on Friday, November 24, affirmed that the election in which Suleiman emerged was full of irregularities.

Suleiman is representing the Ningi Central Constituency in the Ninji local government area of Bauchi state.

The appellate court subsequently ordered a rerun in 10 polling units in the lawmaker's constituency.

Recall that Suleiman was the immediate past chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria.

Professor Shuaibu Muhammad, the returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Suleiman the winner of the March 18 poll in the Ningi Central Constituency.

The speaker, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 16, 866 votes to defeat the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Khalid Abdulmalik-Ningi, who garnered 15, 065 votes.

Coming third in the election is Danlami Bara’u, the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), who polled 4,886 votes.

But Abdulmalik-Ningi was not satisfied with the outcome of the poll and sought for redress at the tribunal but his petition was dismissed while the victory of Suleiman was affirmed.