Supreme court affirms Bala Mohammed as Bauchi governor

The supreme court has affirmed the election of Bala Mohammed as governor of Bauchi state.

A five-member panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by Sadique Abubakar, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 2023 election.

The court corroborated the findings of the court of appeal, which affirmed the election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, and dismissed Abubakar’s appeal for being “devoid of merit”.

BACKGROUND

In March 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mohammed as the winner of the Bauchi governorship election.

The Bauchi governor polled 525,280 votes to defeat Abubakar, the former chief of air staff, who secured 432,272 votes.

Abubakar thereafter approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.

In September 2023, the tribunal dismissed the petition filed by Abubakar and the APC.

In November 2023, the court of appeal affirmed Mohammed as the winner of the governorship election.

The three-member panel ruled that the appellants failed to mention the polling units where they alleged that forms and booklets for the election were not properly filled.

The panel held that the appellants failed to adduce any evidence to back their allegations of rigging.