The Kaduna State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal will deliver its decision today in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2023 election, Isah Ashiru, against the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governor, Uba Sani.
The panel will deliver its decision through Zoom, but no formal explanation has been provided.
A joint team of police officers, the Department of State Security Service (DSS), and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has tightened up security around the court grounds ahead of the judgment.
Supporters of the APC and the PDP have already gathered in court to await the entrance of the tribunal members, led by Justice Victor Oviawie.
The PDP is contesting Governor Uba Sani’s declaration as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
Senator Sani received 730,001 votes to surpass his closest challenger Ashiru, who received 719,196 votes.
Jonathan Asake of the Labour Party (LP) finished third with 58,283 votes, while Suleiman Hunkuyi of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) received 21,405 votes.
While the LP and NNPP acknowledged the election results, the PDP and its candidate challenged the results, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission proclaimed the wrong candidate the winner.
The PDP and Ashiru claimed that the INEC committed huge irregularities and manipulated results in various local governments in favor of Governor Sani.
According to them, Senator Sani did not receive the greatest number of legal votes cast in the election and so should not have been declared the winner by the INEC.
However, in June 2023, the PDP and Ashiru filed a petition at the electoral petition tribunal to dispute Governor Sani’s election.
At the tribunal’s final sitting on September 3, all parties presented their final written addresses, with the APC’s legal team, led by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ajo, SAN, arguing that the petitioners had helped in proving he won the election free and fair, pointing in particular to the admission of a star witness for the petitioner, Bonett Gwazah, a senior system analyst in the VR/ICT department of the IEC.
The PDP, on the other hand, claimed that the INEC produced two contradictory election results for the governorship election.
The party’s legal team, led by Oluwole Iyamu, SAN, accused INEC of rigging the election in Sani’s favor.
The APC is represented in court by the deputy governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, the state party chairman, Emmanuel Jekada, the governor’s Chief of Staff, Sani Liman, and the secretary to the Kaduna State government, Balarabe Abbas.
Hassan Hyet, the head of the Kaduna State Peoples Democratic Party, and Nuhu Bajoga, the former deputy governor of Kaduna State, are also there.
