KADUNA ELECTION TRIBUNAL: FEAR IN APC AS PDP SET TO BOOT OUT UBA SANI’S GOVERNMENT …… Testimonies Of Witnesses Boosting Chances Of Isa Ashiru At The Tribunal

Isa Ashiru Kudan

"Facts have been established that INEC did not thoroughly observed the electoral act by declaring Uba Sani as the true winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election." Reports.

The ongoing governorship tribunal sitting in Kaduna has reached a conclusion, and going by the testimonies of the subpoenaed witnesses and their cross examination, the chances of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Hon. Isa Ashiru reclaiming his mandate through the court has received a tremendous boost.

At the closing of Ashiru's case of Thursday; 3rd of August, 2023, no fewer than 23 witnesses had testified on what happened in their various polling units, wards and Local Government Areas of the state. With the examination in chief and cross examination done by the counsels involved, facts have been established that INEC did not thoroughly observed the electoral act by declaring Uba Sani as the true winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.

However, the subpoened witnesses, spaning from Igabi, Chikun to other LGAs of the state had exposed the non compliance of INEC to the dictate of the Electoral Act; which is the guiding principles on how election processes and the winner should be announced.

With the testimonies of the witnesses so far, one can totally agree that Governor Uba Sani was declared the winner of the election in error by the INEC. This is because witnesses at the court told the tribunal that there were issues of over voting and multilation of results.

Many of the witnesses also testified that results of elections were not announced at their polling units, mostly in Lere Local Government Area of the state.

One of the witnesses from Lere Local Government, Amince Macika, while testifying at the court, told the tribunal that they were desfrachised, adding that no result was recorded or announced at his polling unit, as thugs who are supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) invaded the polling unit and distrupted the process.

Similarly, Muhammed Adamu, among other witnesses who had appeared before Justice Victor Oviawe's panel, also testified that their votes were not counted or announced due to over voting. " After the voting exercise, votes were sorted, and over voting was discovered. As a result of the over voting, results were not announced," Adamu told the tribunal.

Another witness, Haruna Abubakar, who adopted his deposition as his evidence before the tribunal, also explained that seven hundred voters were accredited, while eight hundred votes were counted.

Abubakar who is a businessman told the court that after he voted, he stayed back but, after the counting, the election result was not announced at the polling unit due to over voting, as prescribed by the Electoral Act.

At one of the tribunal's proceedings, Bako Moses Duniya who is a Data analyst told the court that multilation were done on the original results sheets in respect to polling unit 018, 001, 002 among others, in Makera wards respectively, using magic pen.

Mr. Duniya demonstrated his claims in a graphical format, using plasma Television to butteres his point before the court of the alleged election malpractices.

Also to consolidate on Ashiru's claims that he is the winner of the election, a subpoenaed witness; staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who is the Head of the Communication Unit in the Department of VR/ICT of the Commission in Kaduna, Yusuf Zubairu Salisu told the tribunal that the results on the Irev is the true reflection of how Kaduna electorate cast their votes. And going by the testimonies of the INEC official, it is obvious that Ashiru truly won the election. 

At the two previous sittings of the tribunal; 2nd and 3rd of August, 2023, the behaviour of the INEC, running away from producing a subpoeanaed witness as ordered by the tribunal is also an attestation to the fact that the Commission has a question to answer.

It might also interest the public to know that the Uba Sani through his counsels never prayed that he (Uba Sani) won the election but, only urging the tribunal to dismiss Ashiru's petition on the ground of competency.

With the aforementioned, one needs not to argue on whether the Kaduna gubernatorial election results were manipulated or not.