Election Tribunal Upholds Niger Governor's Election Victory

SAN FRANCISCO, November 03, (THEWILL) - The Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Minna, Niger state Thursday upheld the election of Dr M’uazu Babangida Aliyu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as Niger State Governor in the April 26, 2011, Governorship race in the state.

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate in the election, Alhaji Bako Shettima had petitioned the tribunal to nullify the result of the election on the premise that the poll was not conducted in strict compliance to the Electoral Act.

But in his judgement, the Tribunal through its Chairman, Justice Pascal Nnadi stated that though it was evident that there were incidences of non-compliances during the governorship election in 19 local government areas of the state, the infringements had no effect whatsoever on the total number of valid lawful votes that gave the PDP candidate victory.

The tribunal declared as invalid 170,988 for PDP and 61,697 for CPC.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier announced that the PDP polled 543, 205 votes, while the CPC polled 224, 773 votes.

In dismissing the CPC’s petition, the tribunal ruled that the party failed to prove its allegation of irregularities, adding that its evidence were more of hearsay and hence could not be taken seriously.

“The Tribunal therefore holds that the 2nd Respondent, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has the majority of votes cast and should be returned to the office of the Governor of Niger state. I hereby dismiss the petition of the Petitioners and return the respondent as the governor of the state”, Justice Nnadi ruled.

In a statement after the tribunal’s judgement, Governor M’uazu Aliyu in a statement through his Chief Press Secretary, Mallam Danladi Ndayeb, dedicated his victory to God.

"This is victory from God and I dedicate my election to him. I must thank the good people of Niger State for the confidence they have in me. They were there to vote and have supported us up till this moment,” the statement said.

"I wish to also use this opportunity to renew my pledge to the good people of Niger State that I will serve them with all my strength. During my first tenure, I served the people and my people can attest to this. Now that the court has affirmed that I was duly elected to serve my people for another term of four years, I can only tell them to expect much more," the statement added.