The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal on Monday sacked Joshua, the son of former Senator Jerry Gana, from the House of Representatives.

Rep Joshua Audu Gana was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Edati/Lavun/Mokwa Federal Constituency of Niger State in the February 25 general elections.

Mr Gana, who won the election with 47,942 votes as against 40,003 votes scored by the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Abdullahi Gbatamagi, was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Dissatisfied with the declaration, the APC and its candidate, Mr Gbatamagi, through their counsel, Johnson Usman, SAN, challenged the return of Mr Gana.

The petition is via a petition number EPT/NG/HR/06/2023 on the ground that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, in that the margin of win was less than the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected in the polling units where elections did not hold or were cancelled.

Delivering the judgment on Monday, the three-member tribunal headed by Justice Sylvester Godspower agreed with Mr Usman’s arguments.

The tribunal proceeded to invalidate votes in the 26 polling units of the constituency, thereby reducing the votes of Mr Gana to 46,494 votes while that of Mr Gbatamagi now stood at 39,159 votes, leaving the PVCs collected in the affected polling units at 14,411.

The tribunal consequently set aside the Certificate of Return issued to Mr Gana and ordered the commission to conduct a supplementary election in the 26 polling units within 90 days of the judgment to determine the election’s winner.

(NAN)