Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 9, 2019 election in Katsina State, Senator Yakubu Lado, on Sunday said he would appeal the verdict of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to ensure that votes of the electorate count.
Lado added that he was banking on the minority judgment delivered by the chairperson of the three-man tribunal, Justice Hadiza Ali Jos, among other reasons to approach the appellate tribunal for “justice”.
Justice Jos, while delivering a dissenting judgment during Saturday’s ruling, nullified the election of Governor Bello Masari and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh election within 90 days.
According to her, Governor Masari had no required educational qualification to contest the election and “should not be among the contenders of the rerun poll”.
“The respondent does not have the required educational qualification to contest the governorship election. He only lied on oath in his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) form CF001,” she added.
However, her judgment was overruled by other two members of the panel, Justice Ityonyiman and Justice E.B Omotoso, leading to the victory of Governor Masari at the tribunal.
The counsel to Lado, Gordy Uche (SAN), who spoke on his behalf, told THISDAY that the chairman of the tribunal has delivered judgment in their favour and directed that fresh election should be conducted within 90 days.
He said: “We did not lose. The chairman of the tribunal delivered judgment in favour of my client and asked that there should be fresh election based on the disqualification that the tribunal has made of the sitting governor.
“It was a part judgment; we won and our opponents also won in the part. So, we have a judgment in our favour which says the same thing we have being saying that a sitting governor is not qualified and has never been qualified to run for that office.
“We will go on appeal to the Court of Appeal against the majority decision. If our opponents feel they need to go on appeal on the minority decision it is their rights. Both of us will meet at Appeal Court.”
He expressed optimism that the PDP and its candidate would win the election at either the Appeal Court or the Supreme Court, saying: “We have a good case.”
