Doguwa: Tribunal strikes out motion to stop supplementary election

The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano has struck out a motion seeking to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting a supplementary poll in Doguwa/Tudunwada Federal constituency in the state.

Daily Trust reports that the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) for the federal constituency, Salisu Yushau, had filed the motion of notice, arguing that if INEC went ahead with the supplementary election in the constituency, it might have the effect of “foisting upon the tribunal a situation of complete helplessness” as he was challenging the earlier election.

Yushau is the main challenger of the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, who was earlier declared the winner of the constituency’s poll but whose victory was reversed by the electoral umpire due to the margin of victory principle.

The electoral umpire had therefore fixed April 15 to conduct the supplementary election along with other elections not yet concluded across the country.

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Ruling on the motion on notice, the three-member tribunal, consisting of Justices L.B Lawal Akapo, Thelma Achon and Abdulrahaman Idris, struck out the application on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction.

The tribunal held that its jurisdiction could only be activated or set in motion “only and if only” an election had taken place and had been concluded in the constituency, which was not the case.

According to them, upon reading the motion on notice, they raised the issue of jurisdiction and thereafter, formulated the issue on whether or not, they had the jurisdiction and competence to entertain the application in view of the provision of Section 285 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Earlier, counsel for the NNPP candidate, Bashir Yusuf Muhammed, had submitted that the tribunal had the jurisdiction and competence to entertain the application giving regard to the combined impetus of Section 285 (1) CFRN, 1999, Section 24 (6) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Section 6 (6) of the 1999 Constitution.

He had insisted that the decision of INEC was challengeable by any of the contestants, imploring the tribunal to look into the decision of the commission as it relates to the decision to organise a supplementary election in the constituency.