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The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna, on Monday nullified the election of the majority leader, House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa.
Doguwa, represents Tundun wada/Doguwa Federal Constituency, is the third ranking member of the House after the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Recall that the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano had on September 5 dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) candidate, Yusha’u Salisu, in the February 23 election against Doguwa’s victory.
The tribunal said the PDP candidate failed to prove allegations of irregularities and over-voting in the election.
But in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, the Court of Appeal wondered how the tribunal arrived at the conclusion that PDP and its candidate had failed to prove their case.
While setting aside the tribunal judgement, the court nullified the entire election in the two local government areas the Doguwa represents, stating that the whole process was marred by irregularities.
The appellate court held that the entire election could not stand as Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), had omitted other parties from the final declaration of the result.
The court said INEC made a substantial breach by writing the results of only two parties out of 53 parties that participated in the election in Form EC 8 (II) E.
The court therefore ordered INEC to conduct fresh election within 90 days in the entire constituency.