INEC withdraws two certificates of return from Kaduna assembly members-elect

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has withdrawn two Certificates of Return issued to two members-elect of Kaduna State House of Assembly.

The members are  Haruna Aliyu popularly known as Chakis  and  Ibrahim Ismail, all members of the Kaduna State House of Assembly representing Kaduna North II (Kawo) and Kaduna South II (Tudun Wada) constituency respectively.

Haruna Aliyu and Ibrahim Ismail whose certificates were withdrawn contested in the primaries where Yusuf Salihu scored 104 votes and Nasiru Usman had 49 votes at the said elections held on October 7, 2018.

Meanwhile, their party, the APC, had substituted the names of the winners of the primaries with that of Haruna Aliyu and Ibrahim Ismail who had scored 24 and 35 votes respectively and submitted same to INEC as the party’s candidates.

In the judgement delivered on the 16th of April 2019 at the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, the presiding Judge, Justice Z. B Abubakar said Nasiru Usman having scored the highest number of votes cast at the primaries  conducted on the said date for  elective position of member State House of Assembly representing Tudun Wada Constituency otherwise known as Kaduna South II, Kaduna State is the nominated candidate for the general elections.

Justice Abubakar stated that the purported substitution of the name of Hon. Yusuf Salihu for the Kaduna State House of Assembly election Kaduna North II Constituency is in violation of the provision of section 33 of the Electoral Act. 2010 as amended.

Following the court orders, INEC had adhered to the directives and had issued certificate of return to Yusuf Salihu and Nasiru Usman as the winners of the 2019 Kaduna State House of Assembly election.