A Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna has upheld the election of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state.
The court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Olumuyiwa Aburu in the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Isah Ashiru, affirmed the judgement of Kaduna State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which upheld el-Rufai as winner of the March 9 guber poll.
PDP and its candidate had filed the appeal, challenging the judgment of the tribunal which affirmed the declaration of el-Rufai by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of the election.
Ashiru had asked the tribunal to annul el-Rufai’s election on the grounds that the process was fraught with fraud and irregularities.
PDP had asked the tribunal to cancel 515,951 votes which it claimed were unlawfully added to APC as well as 124,210 unlawful votes which it said were also added to the PDP, through wrong or double entry on the result sheets by INEC.
The tribunal had, however, dismissed the petition, saying it lacked merit as the petitioners did not provide any factual proof that INEC was wrong in returning el-Rufai as duly elected.
