Zamfara: Supreme Court affirms Yari’s election

Posted by admin Election 2015, Elections, Headlines, State News, Zamfara Friday, January 8th, 2016

From: GODWIN TSA, Abuja

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the election of Malam Abdulazeez Yari of All Progressives Congress as governor of Zamfara.
In a unanimous judgment, the apex court dismissed the petition challenging the election of Governor Yari for lack of merit.
Alhaji Mahmud Shinkafi, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, had approached the apex court to challenge the decision of the Appeal Court in Sokoto that upheld Yari’s victory.
The petition was anchored on the grounds that there was want of the 21 days statutory notice given to the Independent National Electoral Commission before the conduct of the APC governorship primary election.‎
Specifically, the Justice John Okoro-led panel of six justices held that the petitioner, Alhaji Mahmud Shinkafi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), failed woefully in proving allegations of malpractices and over-voting and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
“The grouse of the appellants in this issue, basically, is that there was over-voting and that because of that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
“To prove over-voting, the law is trite that the petitioner must tender the voters’ register.
“The court must also see the statement of result in the appropriate forms which would show the number of registered accredited voters and number of actual voters,’’ the court said.
Okoro said the appellant must also relate each of the documents to the specific area of the case in respect of which documents were tendered.
Besides, the court held that the petitioner failed to show the figures representing over-voting and if removed, would result in victory for the petitioner.
“From the finding above, I agree with the court below that the appellants failed woefully to prove over-voting in accordance with the principles laid down by law.
“The reliance on the evidence of one of the witnesses through a document he did not make has not made any difference.
“There is no doubt that a petitioner is entitled to contend that an election or return in an election be invalidated by reason of corrupt practice or non-compliance,” he said.
On the allegation of corruption, the court held that for a petitioner to succeed on the ground of corruption, he must prove that corrupt practices or non-compliance actually took place.
Justice Okoro who read the judgment said the appellant must also prove that the alleged infraction substantially affected the result of the election.

-Sunwp_posts