THE Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Agbu Kefas as the governor of Taraba State.
The court denied the appeal by Yahaya Sani of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) in a unanimous ruling on Thursday, January 25, due to its lack of substance.
Sani, the NNPP’s candidate in the March 18, 2023 election, had petitioned the court to nullify Kefas’ victory.
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He had claimed anomalies, other malpractices, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
He asked the court to pronounce him the election winner on the grounds of scoring the majority of the lawful votes cast.
The Court of Appeal had in November 2023 dismissed Sani’s appeal against the tribunal’s decision which upheld Kefas’s election.
Kefas contested and won the Taraba State governorship election on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform.
The Tribunal had decided that the NNPP’s appeal was without merit and dismissed it on September 30, 2023.
In the March 18, 2023, governorship election, Kefas won 257,926 votes to defeat Yahaya, who garnered 202,277 votes.
Similarly, The Supreme Court upheld the victory of Ahmed Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Sokoto state governor on Thursday.
In the lead judgment, Tijani Abubakar rejected the PDP’s and its governorship candidate Saidu Umar’s appeal, concurring with the lower courts’ decisions.
The Supreme Court earlier affirmed Siminalayi Fubara as the duly elected governor of Rivers State.
The apex court dismissed the appeal of Tonye Cole of the APC against Fubara’s election.
In a judgement on Thursday, January 25, the court maintained that Cole did not establish the allegations of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, among others.
The court held that the appeal was incompetent and dismissed it for lacking merit.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance