From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi State Governorship Tribunal sitting in Birnin Kebbi has affirmed the election which brought Governor Nasir Idris and his Deputy, Senator Umar Abubakar to power.
The three panels, comprises of Justice Ofam .I Ofam, Justice Daurabo Suleiman Sikkan and Justice Celestial Dafe also dismissed forgery of certificates leveled against the Deputy Governor Senator Umar Abubakar by the petitioners.
They noted that the supboned witneses invited by the petitioners, documents tenders were not basic requirements for contest for the position of Governor ,Deputy Governor,but rather affidavits according to exact Electoral Act of 2022.
While reading their unanimous judgement for about three hours, presiding Judge,Justice Ofem I.Ofam, ruled that the petitioners, PDP Governorship candidate, Aminu Bande and his party, PDP had failed woefully to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Deputy Governor of the state forged his certificates.
He said that the petitioners did not followed the provisions of Section 131,133 inviting it’s witnesses, stressed that the petitioners were the one who had written query to the 2nd Respondent colleges, and paid for the supboned witneses to appeared before the tribunal.
“It is not the duty of the petitioners to write and paid for the supboned witneses to appear before the tribunal even if they suspected there were forgery of the 2nd Respondent documents.
“The petitioners failed woefully to call another Umar Abubakar to testify that there is another Umar Abubakar bearing the same name. It is obvious that the petition evidence had collapsed,no burden to the Respondents”.
The Judge noted that it was the same counsel who originated the investigation into the Deputy Governor alleged certificates forgery, sent it to his colleges, while he was still the legal adviser to the PDP Governorship candidate, appearing for the PDP and it’s candidate before the tribunal contrary to sections 131 and 133 of Nigeria’s Constitution.
While dismissing the issue on over voting, Justice Ofem declared that the petitioners also failed to prove that the election results conducted by the INEC were not complied to the exact electoral laws.
He said that,the witnesses call by the petitioners,Rw86 was not physically presence at the polling units in contention which he confirmed during the cross examination session.
He noted that the petitioners failed to utilize sections 37,38 of 1999 Nigeria’s Constitution, which provided that the witnesses must be physically presence in the polling units not relied on the third hands or mere says information.
“Therefore,we have found that there were no over voting and uphold that INEC duly complied with exact law in conducting the election”.
In the unanimous judgement,justice Ofam however said: ” base on the foregoing,we hereby affirm the election of Nasir Idris as the Governor elected of Kebbi State. We therefore dismissed petition against the 2nd repondent for lacked of merit'”.
Bother Justice Daurabo Suleiman Sikkan and Justice Celestial Dafe concurred with the judgment delivered by the Chairman of the panel.
In his reaction to the judgment, Counsel to the PDP,Barrister Nura Bello said his client will study the judgement and seek redress at the Court of Appeal.
While commenting on the judgment, Counsel to the INEC,Usman Sule (SAN) described the judgment excellently delivered by the Judges stressed that they have painstakingly, patiently delivered justice to all parties.
The Kebbi State Governor, Dr Nasir Idris while reacting to the judgement,invited all the members of the opposition party, PDP,to join him in deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.
Idris,said that the period of election is over,”I therefore invite all members of the opposition party to join me to deliver dividends of democracy to our people. The issue of insecurity is everybody’s business”.