The Taraba state election petition tribunal yesterday nullified the election of governor Darius Ishiaku of the PDP and declared Aisha Alhassan of the APC the winner of elections.
The main reason for the judgement was that Ishiaku was found not validly nominated as candidate of the PDP and therefore did not qualify contest the governorship election.
The tribunal held that PDP’s governorship primaries violated section 78 (b) (1)(2) of the Electoral Act which guides parties nomination to the position of governorship candidate.
It held that contrary to the provision of the section, PDP conducted the purported primaries at its national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, in Abuja with no clear delegation from the local government areas in the state.
The tribunal also sustained the testimonies of the head of election monitoring of Independent National Electoral Commission that the commission was not aware of any primaries conducted by the party in line with the provision of the electoral act which produced Ishaku as the party’s flagbearer.
The tribunal said the defence by the PDP that the primaries were shifted to Abuja because of security challenges in the state was rejected by the tribunal.
It also sustained the evidence of the INEC official that there was no primaries election in the state and the emergence of Mr. Ishaku through the purported election in Abuja was after the statutory stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed.
