NASS Poll: Tribunal Upholds Saraki’s Election

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday dismissed the petition filed by Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC),Dr Bukola Saraki in the Kwara central senatorial district in the March 28,2015 election.

The chairman of the tribunal, Justice Josiah Majebi, in his two hours ruling, dismissed   AbdulRasaq’s petition for lacking merit, competence and substance and affirmed the election of Saraki.

Majebi said that the petitioner failed to proof his case that the election that produced Saraki was characterized by electoral malpractices .

He stressed that the petitioner failed to established any basic facts that there were electoral malpractices in some wards of Ilorin South, Ilorin East and Asa local government councils of the senatorial district and held that the petitioner’s demand for the cancellation of the results of the election in the affected local government councils was not tenable.

The tribunal chairman added that, “in accordance with electoral act, any petitions to election petition must be filed within 21 days but the petitioner failed to file his petition within the specify period of the time of 21 days but instead filled outside the scheduled time and thus lacked merit that can warrant the cancellation of the election”. Majebi also averred that, all the evidence raised by the petitioner that the election was not complied with the electoral Act cannot be substantiated as all the evidence tendered before the tribunal was basically on hearsay and should not be admissible as true evidence that can negate the election of the respondent.

The chairman pointed out further that, the petitioner also failed to establish the expert oral evidence on the forensic analysis he put forward before the tribunal and this could not be admitted as a factor to cancel the election.