The Election Petition Court sitting in Kaduna State, on Saturday upheld the victory of Senator Lawal Usman as the winner of the Kaduna Central Senatorial Election in the state.
The tribunal dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress candidate, Abdullahi Muhammad-Sani who challenged the election of the PDP senator on four grounds.
News About Nigeria gathered that, the grounds were on the issue of school certificate forgery, over voting, non-compliance and the issue of nomination and sponsorship of the first respondent by his party.
The three-man panel led by Justice H.H Kereng dismissed Abdullahi’s petitions noting that all the arguments lacked merit and has such are failed argument.
Justice Kereng stated that the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the first respondent’s NECO results and other school certificates were forged.
He added that the petitioners also failed to prove that the first respondent was not duly elected by majority of votes in the February 25 polls.
He also stated that, on the issue of non-compliance, Kereng the petitioners couldn’t prove that there was non-compliance which affected the elections results.
According to their ruling, the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidate was the responsibility of the political party and not for the court to resolve.
The tribunal therefore went on to affirm Lawal’s victory stating that, “the elections and return of the first respondent is hereby affirmed. This petition is hereby dismissed.”
The Personal Assistant to the Senator, Jalal Falal, who spoke with Newsmen after the court’s judgement expressed his gratitude to God the victory, saying the outcome of the judgement had validated the senator’s election.
He therefore urged the opposition to join hands with the Senator to work for the progress and development of the people of Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone.
