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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The court of appeal in Abuja has affirmed Bala Mohammed as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Bauchi state.
In a unanimous judgment on Friday, led by Justice Chidi Nwaoma, dismissed the appeal by Sadique Abubakar and his All Progressives Congress (APC) for lacking in merit.
Justice Chidi Nwaoma Uwa, who read the judgment held that the appellants failed to prove the allegations that the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled.
The court equally held that the appellants 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.
On the allegations that there was massive non-compliance with the electoral laws, the court ruled that the appellant again could not prove this, as some of the witnesses who testified did not vote on election day and those who voted only spoke based on what they saw in their polling units alone.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had declared Bala Mohammed winner of the March 18 governorship election after polling a total of 525,280 votes to defeat Sadique Abubakar, former chief of air staff, who secured 432,272 votes.
Not satisfied, Sadique Abubakar, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenged the result at the tribunal but lost.
The tribunal in a unanimous decision, the three-member panel ruled that Mohammed was validly elected.
It held that the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the alleged manipulation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the election.
In addition, the tribunal held that the appellants failed to mention the polling units where they alleged that forms and booklets for the election were not properly filed.
It held that the appellants failed to adduce any evidence to back their allegations.
The tribunal also said the appellants’ witnesses were unable to prove that they understood the forms used for the election.
The court ruled that the appellants failed to prove that there was massive non-compliance with electoral laws during the election.
