Gombe Governorship Election: Appeal court upholds Governor Yahaya’s victory

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the election of Governor Inuwa Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the Gombe State Governorship Election.
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The court upheld the judgment of the Gombe State Governorship Election Tribunal, which had dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging Yahaya’s re-election.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Governor Yahaya the winner of the Saturday, March 18, gubernatorial election, securing 342,821 votes, while his main challenger, Muhammad Jibrin Barde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), garnered 233,131 votes.

However, the PDP filed a petition challenging the re-election of Governor Yahaya, alleging that Yahaya was not re-elected by a majority of lawful votes.
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PDP also claims that multiple thumbprinting and ballot box stuffing were carried out across various polling units in nine out of the 11 local government areas of the state to favour Yahaya.

However, the three-man panel of the tribunal dismissed these claims, stating that the PDP failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate their allegations.

The tribunal also expunged the witnesses’ statements and exhibits of the PDP (INEC forms) for being baseless.

The appellate court, in its judgement delivered on Thursday, agreed with the state tribunal that the PDP’s case lacked merit and dismissed the appeal.

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