The National and State House of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Kaduna State, on Saturday, orders for a re-run in 22 polling units of Kagarko State Assembly Constituency.
The order followed the Tribunal verdict sacking Mr. Morondia Tanko, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9 election for Kagarko State Constituency who was declared winner of the poll.
Mr. Nuhu Shadalafiya former deputy Speaker of the State Assembly and candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) had challenged the victory of Tanko and PDP for Kagarko State Constituency at the Tribunal.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Adamu Suleiman, in a unanimous decision, ordered for a re- run in the 22 affected polling units across two wards in the area.
A member of the tribunal, Justice Maimuna Abubakar, who read the judgement, said the petitioner had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.
According to her, the petitioner had petitioned the Tribunal alleging that the election was characterized by malpractices such as over voting, manipulations and violence.
She said the petitioner had provided proof that all the alleged electoral malpractices were committed in the affected polling units,
Part of the judgement reads: “that election be re- run in two wards, polling unit 001 to polling unit 018 because the margin between the first respondent and the petitioner is 2,318 votes as the petitioner got 24,008 votes and the first respondent got 36,302 votes.
“However, the result of the over voting filed in the petition was 9,702 votes for the first respondent and 2,128 for the first petitioner thus showing over voting in the election.
“Hence the need for a rerun in the 22 polling units of Kagarko Local government of Kaduna State was delivered as the judgement by the tribunal.“
Speaking with Journalists shortly after the judgement, Shadalafiya said the tribunal shunned technicalities and allowed justice to prevail.
“Because the truth of the matter was that, there was over voting and we proved that beyond reasonable doubt because it was well spelt out.
“The margin of the over voting was about eleven thousand and I benefitted with two thousand votes while he benefitted with nine thousand.
“And today, his 9,000 votes were removed, my 2,000 votes also removed. I was left with over 21,000 while he was left with 16,000 votes.“
He thanked the judiciary for doing the needful in the matter saying: “I give glory to our party and our leader Malam Nasiru El-Rufai who encouraged me to come to tribunal.”
Shadalafiya thanked the people of Kagarko and all his supporters including clergymen prayed for his success.
He urged them to massively give him their votes during the the re-run.
Also, Oyo State House of Assembly Tribunal, on Saturday, nullified the election of PDP candidate, Kazeem Olayanju, representing Irepo /Olorunsogo, and declared APC winner of March 9 poll.
Justice Anthony Akpovi declared APC’s Ajibola as the authentic winner of the House of assembly election.
APC’s Ajibola had challenged the election of PDP’s Olayanju on the ground that INEC falsely declared that election did not hold in Irepo Ward 3 because result for the ward was burnt down at collation centre.
But the tribunal held that election held in Irepo Ward 3 and the result was issued as Ajibola tendered the carbon copy of the result issued to APC agent at the polling unit to established the case.
Justice Akpovi, in his judgement, said APC scored a total of 12, 224 votes while PDP scored 12, 070 votes in the election.
Akpovi said the difference was 154 votes and declared APC as the winner.
