Tribunal Dismisses Petitions Against Four N/Assembly Seats In Taraba

– Petitions seeking to void election into four National Assembly seats from the state has been dismissed by a tribunal 

– The petitioners failed to establish their cases against the respondents

– Yhree-member tribunal, led by Justice Eyewumi Oritsejafor, in separate judgments disclosed that 

The Taraba State National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja on Saturday, September 8,  dismissed four petitions seeking to void election into four National Assembly seats from the state.

The three-member tribunal, led by Justice Eyewumi Oritsejafor, in separate judgments, found that the petitioners failed to establish their cases against the respondents.

The tribunal also observed some deficient  errors committed by lawyers in some of the petitions, among which were failure to pay the mandatory filing fees at the point of submitting the petition and non-inclusion of necessary parties.

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The four petitions include  one against the senatorial election in Taraba South Senatorial district and three against House of Representatives elections in Ibi/Wukari; Jalingo/Yorro/Zing and Bali/Gassol Federal Constituencies.

The affected petitions include the one filed by Bauka Ishaya Gamgum of  the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the election of Senator Emmanuel Bwacha representing Taraba South Senatorial district on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), marked: EPT/TR/SEN/03/2019, and that filed by Prof Haruna Yakubu of the Action Alliance (AA) against the election of Usman Danjuma Siddi (aka Danji SS) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Ibi/Wukari Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, marked: EPT/TR/HR/01/2019.

The third, marked: EPT/TR/HR/02/2019, was filed by Hassan Bappa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against the victory recorded by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jalingo/ Yorro /Zing Federal Constituency.

The forth petition, marked: EPT/TR/HR/06/2019, was filed by Adamu Maikarfi Tanko of the PDP, against the candidate of the APC in the election in Bali/Gassol Federal Constituency.

The first of the judgements was on the petition by Gamgum, the lead of which was delivered by Justice Oritsejafor, in which he held, among others, that the petitioners failed to prove their claim of over-voting and substantial non-compliance.

Justice Oritsejafor, who noted that the petitioners’ main contention was over-voting, was hinged on their wrong understanding of what over-voting entails.

The judge held that by the provision  of Section 53(2) of the Electoral Act, over-voting could only arise where votes cast exceeding the number of registered voters in a particular polling unit.

He faulted the petitioners’ argument that a petitioner can establish over-voting once he/she shows that the  total number of votes cast exceed the total number of registered voters, through card reader results.

Justice Orisejafor also faulted the type of witnesses called by the petitioners and held that they failed to call relevant witnesses.

He said: “the polling units agents are in vantage position to give direct evidence about what occurred in the polling units in question.

“It is always better to calling officers, who were on ground at the polling units to testify as to what occurred at the polling units where the claim of over voting is concerned.”

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Justice Oritsejafor added that the petitioners’ failure to call polling units agents, who were present when the entries in the result sheets were made, as witnesses in their effort to establish their claim of over-voting, was a fatal error.

The judge held that the petitioners failed to prove any of the grounds raised in the petition, and refused to grant the reliefs sought and proceeded to dismiss the petition.