The National and State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Kaduna on Wednesday dismissed the petition of Sen. Shehu Sani of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) for lack of merit.
Shehu Sani had approached the Tribunal asking it to nullify the election of Sen. Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as senator of Kaduna Central Senatorial District.
Uba Sani, a former Political Adviser to Gov. Nasir El-Rufai, won the Feb. 16, 2019 election with 355, 242 votes.
His closest contestant, Lawal Adamu of the PDP, scored 195,497 votes while Shehu Sani was a distant third with 70,613 votes.
Chairman of the three-man Tribunal, Justice A. H. Suleiman in a judgment that lasted two hours, said that Sen. Shehu Sani’s petition had no substance and lacked merit.
He said that the petitioner had failed to present convincing evidence to warrant the nullification of the election.
The lead counsel to Sen. Uba Sani, Frank Igbe hailed the Tribunal for a fair judgment.
He thanked all those that contributed to the success of the case and urged those not satisfied with the ruling to proceed to the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, counsel to Shehu Sani who were present at the court declined comment on the verdict.
However, his lead counsel, Mr Morris Odeh, who was away in Benue, said that he would only comment after consulting with his client and other colleagues who were in court.
Meanwhile, the Tribunal has fixed August 24, for ruling in the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate Lawal Adamu, who were also challenging the election of Uba Sani.
In another development, the Tribunal has fixed Monday, Aug. 26, to rule on the petition of Mr Barnabas Bantex, former deputy governor of Kaduna State.
Bantex, who contested for Senate under APC to represent Kaduna South Senatorial district, is challenging the re-election of Sen. Danjuma Lah of the PDP in the Feb. 16 polls.
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