Congratulations as Appeal Court takes final decision on PDP's suit seeking to sack Gov Yahaya

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the judgement of the Gombe State Governorship Election Tribunal, which dismissed the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the re-election of Governor Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Delivering judgment, the Court of Appeal agreed with the tribunal that the PDP’s case lacked merit, Nigerian Tribune reported.

Why PDP drags Governor Yahaya to court

The PDP candidate, Muhammad Barde, had approached the tribunal insisting that the election of the governor did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

His lawyers maintained that the PDP candidate scored the majority of the lawful votes cast during the poll.

While Multiple thumb printing and ballot box stuffing allegedly took place in nine local government areas of the state in favour of Governor Yahaya, the three-man panel of the tribunal dismissed the PDP’s application for lacking in merit.

Court of Appeal affirmed Governor Yahaya's victory at tribunal

The tribunal further expunged the witnesses' statements and exhibits of the PDP for being baseless.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on March 18 announced Governor Yahaya of the APC winner of the governorship election with 342,821 votes, while Barde of the PDP was said to have scored 233,131.

This is coming when the Court of Appeal dismissed the sacking of Yahaya's counterpart, Abdullahi Sule, whose election was earlier nullified by the Nasarawa state governorship election petition.