Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, has clarified that there is no confusion in the tribunal judgment dismissing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Isah Ashiru’s petition against his victory in the March 18 election.
Gatekeepers News reports that in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Sani emphasised that the case was dismissed because it lacked merit, as the preliminary objection to the application was made out of time, rendering their case abandoned under the Electoral Act.
Sani said the PDP “misinformed and misled some very important media houses and I became extremely disappointed in them”.
On Thursday, the tribunal ruled 2-1, stating that if the petition were not dismissed for lacking merit, it would have ordered a supplementary election in 22 polling units within 90 days.
Some media reports had erroneously claimed that the tribunal unseated the APC candidate.
“I think there’s no confusion there. Like I said, for some of us who were involved in the draft of the Electoral Act, there’s nothing like confusion there,”
“The case was dismissed because it lacked merit. The preliminary objection to the application was made out of time. And of course, if you look at the Electoral Act, that alone has made their case abandoned. That is on the point of law. There are a lot of cases like that.”
The 52 year-old governor argued that a party could either win in a political battle “or you win a propaganda battle”.
Sani, while affirming the importance of freedom of expression via social media stressed the significance of respecting the final judgment and the law, which, in this case, dismissed the PDP’s petition.
“At the end of the day, for me, what is more important is that the ruling has been made, the case has been dismissed and there is nothing anybody can do because it is on the point of law,” he stated.
“What the judges said is clear. There was a Supreme Court ruling already that judges are allowed to read all the applications by the opposing party. But in any case, that does not stop the case from being dismissed if there is anything that warrants that.
“And that’s what they do. They dismissed the case on the basis of the fact that they abandoned their own case.”
