Tribunal affirms LP’s Ekene winner of Kaduna Reps election
http://www.newsportng.com.ng The National Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna, has dismissed the petition brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Barde to invalidate the election of his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Hon. Ekene Adams.
Ekene, was declared winner of the House of Representatives election conducted on February 25th, 2023 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before Barde decided to seek legal redress on alledged certificate forgery and other grounds against the Labour Party man.
Tribunal affirms Ekene on Tuesday, in a judgement delivered by Justice F.A. Fiberesima, who led a three-man panel that heard the petition, dismissed the case and awarded N500,000 damages to the respondents for cost suffered since the petition was instituted against the first respondent.
Delivering judgement on the case of forgery, the judge noted that forgery from the point of law is a criminal act, a very weighty allegation that must be proved beyond every reasonable doubt.
She noted that the tribunal was already in doubt because the petitioner could not proved the allegation on the ground that his claims lacks merit and therefore discountenance.
The judge further stressed that despite the fact the petitioner tendered documents to support his claims, the respondent, Ekene Abubakar Adams also tendered his own document from the same schools and therefore the best way to had given the petitioner’s claim an edge was to present an eye witness.
Reacting to the judgement, Counsel to the respondent, Muhammed M. Sani said the judgement was highly educative, adding that justice has prevailed at last.
While we could not ascertain whether the petitioner would appeal the verdict or not, it’s important to note that Barde was contacted via phone calls but neither pick nor returned the call as at the time of filling this report.
Tribunal affirms
