Ayorinde Oluokun/ Abuja
The Tribunal had ordered Alhassan to be sworn in as runner up in the 11 April poll, because Ishaku was not qualified to contest the election in the first place as he was not properly nominated by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party. Ishaku filed an appeal.
The five man panel who came in around 12.50 pm has started delivering of the judgement.
Who will smile into the new year, Alhassan or Darius ? We will soon know.
Early rulings by the court in favour of Alhassan:
The court has dismissed arguments by the appellant that the Tribunal should not have accepted the statements of the witnesses because they were not properly signed. Thus, the appellant argued, the Tribunal should have struck out the petition.
The court held that the statements upon examination, were properly signed and stamped by the Secretary to the Tribunal who statutorily was the head of the registry of the Tribunal. The Appellate Court held that the petitioner fully complied with all statutory stipulations for filing of statement of witnesses and that the Tribunal was right to have accepted them.
The court also argued that it will amount to great injustice if the petitioner is held responsible for the mistake of the registry of the Tribunal.
Also, the court dismissed arguments by the appellant that the reliefs sought by the petitioner are incongruent. The appellant had argued that the petitioner cannot be claiming that the election was marred by malpractices and at the same time, asking to be declared winner of the election.
The court ruled that reliefs sought by the petitioner are congruous and consistent with one another.
In other rulings, Ishaku has the upper hand;
The court says Alhassan and APC have no right to challange the election in which Ishaku emerged since none of them is a member of PDP
The court also ruled that the method of nomination of a candidate should not be one of the grounds for disqualification for the election as stated in the constitution and the electoral act.
It also ruled that the issue of PDP primary which produced Governor Darius Ishaku was a pre-election matter that should not have been entertained by the Tribunal.
The court also ruled that only INEC and members of PDP who participated in the primary election has the right to complain.
The Court said whether the primary of a political party was done right or not cannot be subject of an election petition.
The court said the most important question was whether the appellant was a member of PDP and was sponsored by the party for the gubernatorial.
The court ruled that Ishaku was validly nominated candidate of PDP for the election and he participated in the election.
The appellate court said the decision of the Tribunal not to take into consideration the testimony of appellant witnesses that the PDP primary election was shifted to Abuja because of security situation was perverse. It therefore set the decision of the Tribunal aside.