The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, has dismissed a suit brought before it against Sen Binos Yaroe of Adamawa Southern Senatorial Zone.
The tribunal, which sat from 11 am to 4.15 pm on Wednesday, similarly dismissed petitions against Hon Abdulrazak Namdas and Kwamoti Bitrus Laori, but left judgements on petitions against Sen Ishaku Abbo and some others for Thursday.
The petition against Sen Binos, filed by his predecessor, Sen Abubakar Mo-Allahyidi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was challenging the election of the former over allegations of over-voting, violence, non-compliance with electoral procedure, among other ‘irregularities’.
Specifically, Sen Mo-Allahyidi had instituted the suit on the grounds that the March 23, 2019 senatorial election conducted in the southern zone of Adamawa State, which produced Sen. Binos, was characterized by massive violence, bribery, alteration of result sheet, vote buying, over voting, and non-accreditation of voters, all of which, according to Mo-Allahyidi, outrightly violated some sections of the Electoral Act.
He had prayed the tribunal to declare the election of Sen. Binos invalid, declare him (Mo-Allahyidi) as the winner of the election, and to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue him with the certificate of return.
On his part, Sen. Binos prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lack of merit. He argued that the petitioner had failed to tender concrete evidences to support his case.
Delivering his judgment on the suit, the chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Suleiman Akanbi, struck out the petition for “failure” of Mo-Allahyidi to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Akanbi, assisted by two other justices, declared that the petitioner could not link his prayers of violation of electoral acts with concrete evidences, and dismissed the suit for lack of merit.
The suits against Hon Kwamoti and against Namdas made similar claims. They suffered similar fate.
Justice Suleiman Akanbi dismissed both petitions, retaining both House of Representatives members in their respective seats.
The lead judge said in both cases that the petitioners made claims based on hearsay, which they spoke in hyperbolical terms without providing proofs.
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