Appeal court affirms Inuwa Yahaya’s victory as Gombe governor

The court of appeal in Abuja has affirmed Inuwa Yahaya’s re-election as the governor of Gombe state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Yahaya as the winner of the election after scoring 342,821 votes to defeat his closest rival, Jibrin Barde, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 233,131 votes in the last poll.

Displeased, the PDP and its candidate filed a petition claiming that Yahaya, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was not re-elected by a majority of lawful votes.

The opposition party alleged cases of ballot box stuffings and thumbprintings done by Yahaya’s supporters in nine of the state’s 11 LGAs.

However, the Gombe state governorship election petition tribunal dismissed the suit filed by the party and Barde.

S.B. Belgore, who led a three-member panel of the tribunal, struck out the petition.

Not satisfied with the tribunal’s verdict, Barde and PDP approached the appeal court.

Reading the lead judgment on Thursday, T. N Orji-Abadua upheld the governor’s victory and dismissed the appeal.

“This appeal lacks merit,” she said.

“All the issues are resolved in favour of the respondent and against the appellant. No order as to cost. The judgment of the lower tribunal is hereby affirmed.”