The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Friday affirmed the election of Bala Mohammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18 governorship election in Bauchi State.

The appellate court upheld the judgment of the Bauchi State governorship tribunal, which dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Sadique Abubakar.

Delivering the judgment, a three-member panel led by Justice Chidiebere Uwa dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.

Ms Uwa held that the appellants failed to prove their allegations of non-compliance to the provisions of the Electoral Act by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The appellants had alleged that the electoral materials were not properly filled in eight local government areas.

However, the court said the appellants did not call officers of INEC to give evidence to prove that the said forms were not filled and why.

The court held that though there were blank spaces in some forms produced as evidence, it was not substantial enough to cancel the election because the appellants failed to prove what should have been in those spaces.

“From the pleadings, the appellants failed to state the specific details which were to be in the alleged forms, that were not output on the forms,” the court stated.

The court held that the tribunal did a thorough job of evaluating the evidence and that “the evidence of the petitioners were unreliable.”

“This appeal is hereby dismissed as the appellants failed to prove their case” Justice Uwa held.

On September 5, the Bauchi State governorship election tribunal upheld Mr Mohammed as the governor.

In the judgment delivered by a three-man panel led by Justice P.T Kwahar, the court held that there was no strong reason to nullify the election as the election was conducted in compliance with the law.

In March, INEC declared that Mr Mohammed polled 525,280 to beat his closest rival and the APC candidate, Air Marshal Abubakar, who polled 432,272.

(NAN)