The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunals in two Nigerian states upheld the elections of Bassey Otu of Cross River and Yahaya Inuwa of Gombe States respectively on Tuesday.
The tribunals struck out the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Sandy Onor, against the election of Bassey Otu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Gombe Tribunal struck out petitions filed by the African Democratic Congress challenging the election of Governor Muhammadu Yahaya, and his deputy, Manassah Jatau, of the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 poll, Nafiu Bala.
According to the judgment delivered by the Cross River panel, the petition was dismissed for lack of merit.
Also read: Inaugural speech of Bassey Otu, Cross River governor
The PDP candidate challenged the declaration of Otu by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the March 18 poll in the South-South state.
The results announced by INEC put Otu’s tally of votes at 258,619, while Onor reportedly polled 179,636.
The APC candidate won in 15 local government areas of 18 LGAs declared by the commission in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Moreover, Yahaya and Jatau were declared winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission as validly elected.
ADC had challenged the declaration and return of Yahaya based on alleged multiplicity and variations in the arrangement of names on the certificates of his deputy.
The three-man Justices struck the case, saying that “it first a pre-election matter, the deputy has met the minimum certificate requirement to run.”
The tribunal also struck out ADC’s allegations of corrupt practices and vote buying for lack of proof.
In the suit challenging the uploading of the results, the court upheld that there is no provision for INEC to do so.
Our correspondent reports that other judgments are underway one of which was instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate Jibrin Barde, with demand for fresh election in about four local government areas.
