The Justice Angela Otaluka National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Minna High Court Complex has upheld the election of the former governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, as the senator representing Niger North Senatorial District.
Senator Abubakar Sani Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) contested the February 25, National Assembly Election against the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Shehu Mohammed Abdullahi, who lost at the polls.
Senator Shehu Mohammed then approached the election petition tribunal, challenging the election of the former governor on the allegations that multiple votes were cast and that the election was marred with irregularities.
In his petition to the tribunal, Shehu prayed to the court through his lawyer, Barrister Hussaini Garba, that the tribunal should nullify the election of Abubakar Sani Bello and declare him the winner as he scored the highest number of votes cast at the election.
In over three hours of judgement delivered at the high court headquarters in Minna, Justice Angela Otaluka, after reviewing the whole proceedings of the petition, averred that the petitioner failed in totality to prove the issues of overvoting raised in his petition, saying that the petition lacked merit and was dismissed, while the election of the second respondent in the petition was upheld.
Justice Angela Otaluka, while dismissing the petition, awarded the sum of N250,000 as a cost to the respondent.
Similarly, the election of Senator Peter Ndalikali Jiya of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Niger South Senatorial District at the February 25 National Assembly Election was equally upheld by the tribunal.
Senator Mohammed Bima of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had filed a petition against Senator Peter Jiya, challenging his election.
Bima alleged that he was dully elected having scored the majority of the total votes cast in the Niger South Senatorial District and prayed the tribunal to nullify the election of Senator Peter Jiya and to declare him the rightful winner of the election.
Justice Angela Otaluka, while dismissing the petition, declared that the allegations raised by the petitioner could not be substantiated as they lack merit and were therefore dismissed.