Taraba election: Tribunal rules in favour of APC

Aminu Malle, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for Jalingo/ Yorro /Zing Federal Constituency of Taraba State has defeated Hassan Bappa of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the State National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja.

The tribunal on Saturday dismissed the petition by Bappa against the victory recorded by the APC candidate.

Malle contested the election held on February 23, 2019 as the APC’s candidate and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

However, the Supreme Court voided Malle’s candidacy in a judgment given on June 13, 2019 and ordered that he be replaced by Kasimu Bello Maigari, who was later issued with the certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In its judgment on Saturday, the tribunal held that Bappa and the PDP failed to prove their claims that the election was marred by irregularities and held in substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

The tribunal also held that it was a fatal error on the part of the petitioners not to have included Maigari as a party in the case after the name of Malle was deleted, as the first respondent in the petition, after the Supreme Court judgment.