21st June, 2019
Following the striking out of the prayer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the March 9, 2019 election, Alhaji Isa Ashiru, in Kaduna State, seeking a recount of the votes cast in the poll, the party and candidate have taking their case to the appeal level.
The Court of Appeal in Kaduna has now fixed Thursday, June 27 to hear the appeal.
Mr. Elisha Kurah (SAN), lead Counsel to PDP and its governorship candidate, made the disclosure on Thursday, shortly after the sitting of the governorship election Tribunal in Kaduna.
The Tribunal had on May 28, struck out the petitioners’ motion seeking for recount of votes cast in the governorship elections in the state, for lack of merit.
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Bako, who ruled on the motion, said the tribunal had a timeline of only 180 days within which to complete its assignment.
Bako had said that the Tribunal would not accommodate the motion seeking for the recount of votes.
He had also refused the application for amendment of the motion seeking to narrow the votes recount exercise to only 12 local government areas.
The PDP and Ashiru had on May 25, applied to amend the motion to restrict vote recounts to only Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Igabi, Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Zaria, Sabon Gari, Makarfi, Kudan, Kubau, Soba and Ikara local government areas, mostly won by the APC.
However, Kurah said the petitioners’ appeal would be coming up for hearing on Thursday, June 27 at the Federal Court of Appeal.
The Counsel said that the petitioners would put a strong submission for the appeal to scale through.
Kurah also said the petitioners would prune down number of their witnesses.