In Friday’s election, Nasir Idris of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was re-elected as the governor of Kebbi State, defeating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate for governor, Aminu Bande.
The PDP and Bande’s challenge challenging Idris’s election was unanimously denied by the Supreme Court.
The main ruling was delivered by Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji, who rejected all arguments put out by the PDP and its candidate challenging the results of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023.
The state’s deputy governor, Abubakar Tafida, was found not guilty of testimonial forgery by the Supreme Court. The court determined that the necessary elements were not proven.
Additionally, Justice Aba-Aji ruled that the appellants failed to establish that their claims significantly impacted the election’s outcome, hence the claims of non-compliance with the Electoral Act were dismissed.
Idris was legitimately elected, according to the top court’s affirmation of the rulings of the Court of Appeal and the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, both of which were issued on October 5, 2023.
Due to “massive vote cancellation and over-voting” in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state of Kebbi, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) proclaimed the March 18th, 2023 gubernatorial election as inconclusive.
A supplementary election was subsequently scheduled for 15th April, 2023, by the commission.
In the end, the APC’s nominee Idris received 409,225 votes, while the PDP’s Bande received 360,940.
In response to the outcome, Bande and his supporters petitioned the Tribunal.
Petitioners claimed in the filing that Idris lacked the qualifications to challenge the vote and that certain voting units had over-votes.
Not only that, but they said the deputy governor had lied to INEC about his secondary school attendance.
Petitioners failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the third respondent, the deputy governor, submitted a false certificate to INEC, according to the ruling of the tribunal chairman, Justice Ofem Ofem.
Justice Ofem further noted that the facts offered proved that the concerned testimonial was lawfully signed and given to him in 1982 by the then-principal of Sultan Abubakar College, Sokoto.
According to the tribunal chair, the petitioners’ documents were deemed “iron cast evidence” and it was stated definitely that the third respondent did not forge the certificate.
Concerning the matter of over-voting, Justice Ofem stated that irregularities were found in nine out of the fifty-nine polling locations that were examined.
But he insisted that the margin between the victor and first runner-up would remain unchanged after the votes were counted.
The judge went on to say that other polling stations did not show any signs of over-voting or irregularities.
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