Tribunal affirms Darius Ishaku as winner of Taraba guber poll

The Taraba Governorship Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Friday upheld the election of Gov. Darius Ishaku of the PDP, as the winner of the March 9 governorship election in the state.

Alhaji Abubakar Danladi of the APC, filed a petition,  challenging the election of  Ishaku. Delivering judgment, Chairman of the three-member tribunal, Justice M.O Adewara,  declared that Danladi and his party, APC, were not qualified to contest in the election.

Adewara held that due to the disqualification of Danladi by  the Federal High Court, Jalingo, APC had no candidate in the governorship election and as such can be deemed not to have participated in the election.

“A political party can be said to have participated in an election where it has not been restricted by the law.

“A candidate that has been disqualified isn’t a candidate under the law and the political party should not have sponsored him. “

Danladi had been disqualified by the Supreme Court, while his counsel, Alex Akoda had approached the   tribunal to strike out their petition. APC however petitioned the tribunal to relist them in the petition.

In their application, they prayed that the court should replace the disqualified candidate with the candidate that ran for deputy governor alongside Danladi.

The tribunal however denied the motion.

Adewara held that the position of deputy governor was based on nomination.

He further said the deputy governorship candidate cannot replace the disqualified candidate because he wasn’t the one who won the party’s primaries.

Danladi had petitioned the court to either declare him winner or nullify the election conducted on March, 9. He had petitioned the court on the basis of  alleged over-voting  and non- compliance with the electoral act( as amended).

He also claimed that the election was characterised by malpractices and prayed the tribunal to annul the election and declare him winner or in the alternative, order a fresh election. He also  alleged that Ishaku had not been duly elected by majority of votes cast.

“In this petition, the petitioners did not discharge their responsibilities of establishing noncompliance. Consequently, this petition has failed and is hereby dismissed for lack of merit,” the tribunal chairman declared.