The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for Taraba has nullified the election of Taraba Governor, Darius Ishaku, of the Peoples Democratic Party and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress Aisha Alhassan, as the winner of the April 11 governorship election in the state.
The tribunal, in its verdict, declared that Mr. Ishaku was not validly nominated as candidate of the PDP and therefore did not qualify to contest the governorship election.
The tribunal held that contrary to the provision of section 78 (b) (1)(2) of the Electoral Act which guides parties nomination to the position of governorship candidates, the PDP conducted the purported primaries at its national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, in Abuja with no clear delegation from the local government areas in the state.
The tribunal also sustained the testimonies of the head of election monitoring of Independent National Electoral Commission that the commission was not aware of any primaries conducted by the party in line with the provision of the electoral act which produced Ishaku as the party’s flagbearer.
It sustained the evidence of the INEC official that there was no primaries election in the state and the emergence of Mr. Ishaku through the purported election in Abuja was after the allotted time for party primaries had elapsed.
It held that since Mr. Ishaku was not duly sponsored by the PDP, the party had no candidate in the governorship election in the eyes of the law. The tribunal therefore voided the votes of the PDP and Mr. Ishaku in the election saying “it is a waste’’ and declared the APC and its candidate, who came second, as the valid winner of the April 11 election.
