The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Uba Sani, as governor of Kaduna State.
In a unanimous ruling on Friday, a five-member panel of the court determined that Mohammed Ashiru Isah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no basis in his appeal.
After reading the lead judgment, Justice Tijjani Abubakar declared that the appeal was not meritorious since the appellants had not filed the pre-hearing notice at the tribunal in accordance with Paragraphs 18(1) and (3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022.
Tijjani Abubakar held that the appellant “has nothing useful to ask this court”, and further described the appeal as “frivolous and vexatious” and went ahead to dismiss it.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sani as winner of the poll after he scored 730,001 votes to defeat Ashiru, who polled 719,196 votes in the March 18 governorship election.
Not satisfied with the outcome, the PDP and Ashiru approached the tribunal.
In September 2023, two of the three judges on the tribunal panel dismissed the petition on technical grounds.
The panel’s chairman, Victor Oviawie, declared the petition to be abandoned, pointing out that the PDP and its candidate had failed to submit their pre-hearing application by the legally required deadline.
The Court of Appeal upheld Sani’s election in November 2023.