The court upheld the verdict of the Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal, which validated Governor Sani’s election, saying it was right in its majority decision.
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed Uba Sani as duly elected governor of Kaduna State.
The court, in a unanimous decision delivered by a three-member panel of Justices on Friday, dismissed an appeal the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Mohammed Ashiru, which had challenged the outcome of the March 18 governorship election.
In its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, the court upheld the verdict of the Kaduna State Election Petition Tribunal, which validated Governor Sani’s election, saying it was right in its majority decision.
It declared that the petitioners acted in breach of Paragraph 18(1) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 by prematurely applying to the tribunal for the issuance of a pre-hearing notice.
Noting that the law provided that such an application must be filed seven days after the close of pleadings by the parties, the court waved aside the argument of the Appellants that they acted “out of the abundance of caution.”
It held that vigilance in prosecuting a matter could not be equated with jumping the gun, adding that one of the essential elements for the exercise of jurisdiction by a court “is that a case must be initiated by due process of the law.”
The court maintained that statement made on oath by most of the appellant’s witnesses were invalid because they were not filed alongside the petition, adding that they those that testified relied on hearsay.
In addition, it held that the failure to frontload statements of the witnesses within the 21-day prescribed for filing the petition rendered them legally incompetent.
The court said it was satisfied that the tribunal properly evaluated the evidence that was adduced before it by the parties and accorded probative value to them.
“The appeal lacks merit and it is accordingly dismissed. Parties are to bear their respective costs,” the court held.