Tribunal orders rerun in 22 PUs of Kagarko constituency

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The National and State House of Assembly Tribunal sitting in Kaduna State has ordered a rerun in two wards, 22 polling units of Kagarko Constituency.
Nuhu Shadalafiya of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had challenged the victory of Hon. Morondia Tanko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 9th March election for Kagarko Constituency.
In the judgement which lasted for about thirty minutes, the three man panel of the tribunal chaired by Justice Adamu Suleiman, in a unanimous decision, ordered for a rerun in the affected wards.
The judgement read by Justice Habiba Abubakar yesterday said the respondent failed to prove his case beyond reasonable doubts that he did not commit the malpractices petitioned against him.
According to her, the petitioner, Hon. Nuhu Shadalafiya, has among other things said the election held in Kagarko Local Government on the 9th March 2019 was full of malpractices such as over voting, manipulations and multiple electoral malpractices.
In her lead judgement, Justice Habiba said the petitioner has proved that all the electoral malpractices were committed.
The judgement as delivered by Justice Habiba stated thus: “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.