Appeal court affirms the election of Bala Mohammed as governor of Bauchi state.
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on November 17, 2023
The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has this Friday affirmed the election of Bala Mohammed of the People’s Democratic Party PDP as the winner of the Bauchi State Governorship election held on March 18,2023.
The appeal was filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Sadique Abubakar, following the tribunal judgment upholding Mohammed’s victory.
The panel of three justices were unanimous, awarding no cost as the court ruled that each party to the matter should bear their costs.
The presiding judge, Justice Chidi Nwaoma Uwa, read the judgment in the order of the appellant’s plea before the appeal court.
On plea number one, the appellant pleaded that the election be nullified because the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled. The court ruled that the appellant failed to prove this allegation with the needed evidence.
The court also ruled that the appellant failed to state the polling units involved in the said allegations and that he was unable to state what was missing in the forms. It further held that the appellant was unable to prove how the said improperly filled forms affected the results of the election.
The court held that the witnesses called by the appellant were unable to prove that they understood what the forms looked like, while commending the tribunal for doing a thorough job by scrutinising the evidence before it.
