Different interpretations of the judgement of the Kaduna governorship election petition tribunal which was delivered via Zoom on Thursday have sparked off confusion.
While some people interpreted the judgment to mean Governor Uba Sani’s election was upheld by the tribunal, others were of the view that it was declared inconclusive.
It was initially reported that the judgment was inconclusive and Sani was sacked and elections were ordered in 22 polling units in four LGAs across the state within 90 days.
However, another perspective of the judgement said the tribunal dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2023 election, Isah Ashiru, challenging the victory of Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a judgment of two against one, delivered, the three-member panel headed by Justice Victor Oviawie dismissed the petition on the ground that the pre-hearing notice was filed out of time and therefore deemed to be abandoned.
The tribunal chairman and another member held that the appeal brought by PDP and Ashiru against the dismissal of their petition at the preliminary stage by the first and second defendants was not meritorious because the filing of the pre-hearing notice was abandoned and out of time, and therefore had dealt the entire petition a fatal blow.
However, the tribunal noted that if the petition had not been dismissed for lack of merit, it would have ordered a supplementary election in 22 polling units within 90 days in the substantive judgement.
However in a telephone interview after the judgment both lawyers of the PDP and the APC, confirmed that the petition of the PDP was dismissed and the election of Sani was affirmed.
Sanusi Musa (SAN), one of the counsels of the APC, said “The judgement is simple, the tribunal dismissed the petition based on the motion filed by Uba Sani and the APC on the grounds that PDP had abandoned its petition since May 2023.
“So based on that the tribunal agreed it was abandoned. But beacuse it is a court of first instance, the court held that notwithstanding, let it consider the merit of the petition, despite the dismissal of the petition.
“The tribunal said had it been the petition was not dismissed, its decision would be that INEC ought not to have declared winner for the elections until after conducting elections in 22 polling units that were cancelled because the number of voters there was 16000 while the margin between APC and PDP is 11000.
“But despite this finding, the tribunal had already dismissed the PDP petition. So Uba Sani’s election is upheld.”
In his reaction, Mohammed Baba Lawal, one of the counsels of the PDP, said, “What actually happened was that APC raised an objection about our petition that we filed out of time. But the position of the Electoral Act is that the tribunal must go into the knitty gritty.
“Now they found that there was the need for rerun in 22 polling units in four LGAs.
“We cannot activate that as inconclusive unless we appeal against that decision that declared our petition abandoned.
“The final decision of the court has two arms, that is what confused people.
“One declared our petition as abandoned, the second decision declared the election inconclusive but, that inconclusive decision cannot be activated unless the decision declaring the petition abandoned is appealed against and set aside.
“So technically the tribunal declared the petition abandoned and dismissed it. “
