By Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Borno National and state House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, on Monday dismissed the petition seeking the nullification of the election of Senator Mohammed Ndume as senator representing Borno South Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
The three-member panel of justices led by Justice Peter Kekemeke, in a unanimous judgment, dismissed the suit for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 National Assembly election for Borno South Senatorial District, Malam Kudla Satumari, had asked the tribunal to nullify Ndume’s election on the grounds that the poll was marred by alleged electoral malpractices, amongst others.
Satumari and his party, PDP, in the petition with number EPT/BO/SEN/1/2019 and filed on March 15, has Ndume, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as respondents.
However, delivering judgment in the petition, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to proof their allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
The panel stated that in arguing their case, the petitioners did not provide the register of registered voters to show that the numbers were in conflict with the number of votes cast and counted at the poll.
“Allegations of electoral malpractice and irregularities must be proved beyond reasonable doubt,” the tribunal held.
Justice Kekemeke added that the petitioners did not demonstrate before the court the procedures for accreditation, neither the difference between the numbers of votes shown in the evidence and the alterations made, nor the evidence showing the allegations of malpractice.
“In totality, the petitioners have failed to prove their case in the preponderance of evidence and balance of probability so that they will be entitled for the judgment; neither any case of malpractice was proven beyond reasonable doubt.
“The petition therefore fails and is accordingly dismissed,” he said.
The tribunal further held that there was no proof of evidence in the allegations of neither unlawful votes nor witnesses called to testify that they were disfranchised.
The tribunal added that there are no evidence suggesting that there were alteration and how it affected the results of the election, which of the polling units were altered and what the results were before the alteration.
“No evidence linking the exhibits to the case of the petitioners, the results that were not stamped or signed were not avail to the tribunal.
“The petitioners merely tendered nine bags (Ghana must go bags) representing the nine local government areas of the district none of them were given evidence linking them to the case in the petitioners demonstration of evidence.
“We went through them, we observed that some names in the register were not indicating that they did not vote. We also did not notice any thumb print infliction we could not go beyond that, the attention of the tribunal was not drawn to what the petitioners wanted to demonstrate with the documents,” Kekemeke said.
He added that none the 14 witnesses called by the petitioners was a polling unit agent and their evidence was based on hearsay.
Kekemeke further held that the witnesses agreed during cross-examination that they could not be in all polling units.
In the petition, Satumari averred that the election was marred by corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act.
He therefore sought the order of the tribunal for cancellation of the election and for INEC to conduct fresh election for the Senatorial District within 90 days.
