By Tina George, Minna
#TrackNigeria: The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Niger on Wednesday upheld INEC’s declaration of Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello as governor.
The Tribunal after a four-hour sitting dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Candidate, Alhaji Umar Nasko saying it was lacking in merit.
The Tribunal deliberated on all the motions and objections of the petitions bit by bit before arriving at the judgment.
The Tribunal while considering the allegation of forgery and falsification of documents against Governor Abubakar Sani Bello stated that the allegation could not be proved as the Petitioner could not produce the necessary authority to authenticate the documents being alleged to be false.
On the allegation that the Governorship election in 2019 was marred with intimidation, violence, vote-buying among other acts of irregularities, the Tribunal that the petitions are bereft of pieces of evidence hence their failure to prove their case.
On the allegation of vote-buying, corrupt practices, use of state power, intimidation of voters, misuse of security agents to influence the outcome of the election of 9th March 2019, the Tribunal held that the Petitioners failed to establish the allegations as no cogent and credible evidence were adduced to substantiate the allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
Delivering the judgment, the chairman of the tribunal, John Igboji said, “We have come to the inevitable conclusion that the petitioners have failed to their establish their case as there is no shred of cogent evidence in proof of the allegation as required by relevant laws.
“In the circumstance we accordingly hold that the petitioners are not entitled to any relief sought, their petition being bereft of any merit and the petition is hereby dismissed for lack of merit.
“We, therefore, affirm and uphold the election of the first respondent, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello as the duly elected governor of Niger state
The tribunal also awarded a cost of N50, 000 each against the petitioners in favor of the respondents.
The Counsel to Umar Nasko, Mohammed Ndayako said that they are not satisfied with the judgment of the Tribunal saying that they will meet as a team to decide on what to do.
Meanwhile, the Counsel to Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa and the APC said that they were satisfied with the judgment as the Tribunal proved it was objective.
The Counsel said that they had known right from the onset that the accusations and claims were false and baseless.
