The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the judgement of the Gombe State Governorship Election Tribunal, which dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the re-election of Governor Inuwa Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress.
Delivering judgement on Thursday, the Court agreed with the Tribunal that the PDP’s case lacked merit.
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.
Muhammad Jibrin Barde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was said to have scored 233,131.
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, alleging that multiple thumb printing and ballot box stuffing took place in nine local government areas of the state in favour of Governor Inuwa Yahaya.
However, the three-man panel of the tribunal dismissed the PDP’s application for lacking in merit.
The tribunal further expunged the witnesses’ statements and exhibits of the PDP (INEC forms) for being baseless.
