>
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has vacated the order stopping the Indepenedent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from collating and announcing the results of the March 9 governorship election held inTafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
Ruling on Monday, Justice Inyang Ekwo dismissed the suit saying the court lacked jurisdiction on the case.
Justice Ekwo had on March 19 restrained INEC from proceeding with the collation, conclusion and announcement of the result of the election following an ex parte application filed by the APC and Governor Mohammed Abubakar.
Governor Abubakar had filed the application in court after criticising INEC’s decision to continue with the collation of results after it had earlier declared the exercise in the state inconclusive.
INEC had declared the exercise inconclusive after the margin between the two leading candidates was said to be less than the number of cancelled votes.
According to the Returning Officer, Kyari Mohammed, results collated showed that the candidate of the PDP, polled 469,512 votes, while the candidate of the APC secured 465,453 votes.
The Commission, however, later insisted that it would resume the collation of results of Tafawa Balewa LGA on March 19 after considering a report submitted by the REC.
It also challenged the powers of the court to stop the collation and announcement of results.
The Commission, however, later agreed to hold the supplementary elections on March 23 in all other LGAs except Tafawa Balewa.
PDP candidate, Bala Mohammed, won the supplementary elections according to results available.
Bauchi INEC Returning Officer, Kyari Mohammed, announced on Sunday that the PDP candidate polled a total of 6,376 while the candidate of the APC Muhammed Abubakar, who is the incumbent governor polled 5,117.
The RO, however, noted that he is in no position to make a return because the case involving the Tafawa Balewa LGA is still in court.
Now that the case has been dismissed, he may eventually make a return anytime soon.