The National and State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Kaduna State on Monday, dismissed the petition against the victory of a member of the House of Assembly, Tanimu Musa for lack of merit.
Mr Samuel Hardware of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had challenged the victory of Tanimu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9 election for Kachia constituency.
In the judgement which lasted for about an hour, the three-man panel of the tribunal chaired by Justice Adamu Suleiman unanimously dismissed the petition.
The judgement read by Justice Daniel, said that the petitioner failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the respondent did not win the election.
“The petition must contain a prayer, which was not included, hence the petitioner falls short of relief.”
It said that the petitioner did not present the figures representing the alterations he alleged in all the polling units.
The Tribunal added that the petitioner had also failed to call credible witnesses to defend his case, adding that no substantial proof had been given by the petitioner.
In the ruling, the tribunal stressed that the result of the election presented by INEC was presumed authentic unless otherwise proven.
It therefore said the petitioner had failed to discharge the burden of proof of electoral malpractices against the defendant, as such dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.
Reacting, the winner, Mr Tanimu Musa, described the judgement as an act of God and wonderful.
His word: “the mandate was divinely given by God and today, God has really proven as am very excited and I know truly that the judiciary is working and the court is the hope of the common man.”. (NAN)
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