The Supreme Court affirmed the election victory of Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed on Friday.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Sadique Abubakar, filed an appeal to contest the results of the state’s March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election. The petition was dismissed by the supreme court in its lead ruling, which was given by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa.
Governor Mohammed, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee, was challenged by Abubakar and his party as the legitimate loser of the gubernatorial election.
They insisted that many electoral forms utilised during the poll were improperly filled out and claimed that the election was not carried out in a manner that substantially complied with the Electoral Act 2022.
However, Abubakar’s lawsuit was rejected by the Bauchi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Jos Court of Appeal, upholding Governor Mohammed’s election victory.
The APC candidate filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after being dissatisfied with the concurrent rulings of the two lower courts. He claimed that the tribunal had improperly assessed his case in relation to the exhibits that the parties had submitted as evidence.
In a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro, the supreme court dismissed the appeal on Friday for lack of merit and stated that it could not find any justification for overturning the lower courts’ rulings.
It addressed every argument the appellants had made against them.
cc: Vanguard Ng
