7th September, 2023
The National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which sat at the Minna High Court complex, validated Senator Sani Musa’s election.
Senator Sani was hauled to the tribunal by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Barrister Ibrahim Isyaku (SAN), who was disputing the election of the second respondent in the Niger East Senatorial District on February 25, 2023.
In his case, submitted on June 7, 2023, the petitioner stated that the election was characterised by unprecedented anomalies, over-voting, and the denial of eligible voters the ability to vote in seven of the seven senatorial districts.
He also claimed that the first respondent in the suit, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), did not carry out the election in accordance with the terms of the Electoral Act 2022.
The PDP candidate contended that the second respondent election should be annulled since he did not receive a majority of the votes polled.
Furthermore, he claimed that BVAS machines were not used in most polling units in six of the Senatorial District’s nine local government areas and that the majority of voters were not registered to vote.
Among other things, the petitioner asked the Tribunal that the election result sheet for the Niger East senatorial district on February 25, 2023, not be signed.
Isyaku petitioned the Tribunal to annul the election and declare him the legal and lawful winner, having received the majority of votes cast at the majority of polling units in seven of the nine local governments.
During the pre-hearing trial at the Tribunal, 37 exhibits and two witnesses, as well as three substitute witnesses, were submitted, and evidence was permitted.
The presiding officer and electoral officer of Shiroro and Chanchaga local governments, as well as the polling agents, were all summoned and testified at the Tribunal.
After painstakingly reviewing the petition, Justice Mohammed Rashid, a member of the Tribunal’s two-man panel, found that the petitioner failed to prove all of the allegations raised in his petition, and the petition was dismissed as lacking merit.