Tribunal removes Taraba governor, orders Aisha Alhassan to be sworn in

The elections petitions tribunal sitting in Abuja has declared APC’s Aisha Jummai Alhassan as the duly elected governor of Taraba state.

She will become the first elected female governor in Nigeria if PDP’s Darius Ishaku, the incumbent, does not appeal against the verdict.

Danladi Abubakar, chairman of the tribunal, declared Alhassan winner of the April 11 governorship election on the grounds that Ishaku did not emerge candidate of the PDP in a proper primary election.

He ruled that Alhassan, also known as ‘Mama Taraba’, be sworn in as governor of Taraba state because she came second in the poll.

The tribunal also quashed 10 applications of Ishaku, who urged the court to dismiss the petition of Alhassan for lack of merit.

The tribunal held that the governorship primaries conducted by the PDP in Taraba violated section 78 (b) (1)(2) of the electoral act which guides parties nomination to the position of governorship candidate.

It held that contrary to the provision of the section, PDP conducted the primaries at its national secretariat in Abuja with no clear delegation from the local government areas in the state.

The tribunal admitted the testimonies of the head of election monitoring of INEC 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 candidate.

The tribunal rejected PDP’s argument that the primaries were shifted to Abuja for security reasons.

It concluded that since Ishaku was not duly sponsored by the PDP, the party had no candidate in the election in the eyes of the law.

The tribunal voided the votes of the PDP and Ishaku in the election which he called “a waste’’ .

Ishaku is the second PDP governor whose election has been annulled by a tribunal.

On October 24, the election of Nyesom Wike as Rivers state governor was ‎annulled by a tribunal sitting in Abuja.

The tribunal had held that Wike was‎ not duly elected, therefore it ruled that a fresh election be held in Rivers state within 90 days.

Wike has since appealed against the judgment.