*Orders INEC to proceed with collation, announcement of results
By Alex Enumah in Abuja and Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja on Monday vacated its earlier order halting the collation of results of the March 9 governorship election in Bauchi State.
Justice Ekwo in a Judgment held that the court lacks jurisdiction to stop the electoral body from performing its statutory function.
He consequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to go ahead with the collation and announcement of the winner of the election.
Having upheld the objection of INEC, the court held that going into the substantive suit will amount to a waste of the Court’s time.
Justice Ekwo had on March 18 stopped INEC from proceeding with the collation conclusion and announcement of the results of the March 9 governorship election results from Tafawa Balewa LGA .
The ex-parte motion was filed by Governor Mohammed Abubakar on the heels of the resumption of collation of gubernatorial election results as directed by INEC.
By this development, it is expected that INEC will proceed with the collation of the gubernatorial election results from Tafawa-Balewa LGA and eventually declare the winner any moment from now.
It will be recalled that PDP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, is ahead of Governor Mohammed Abubakar with over 5, 000 votes following the supplementary election held last Saturday.
