The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Monday, sacked Sen. Elisha Abbo, the All Progressives Congress lawmaker representing Adamawa North Senatorial District.
A three-member panel presided over by Justice C.E. Nwosu-Iheme, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue a Certificate of Return to Rev. Amos Yohanna of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, as the validly elected lawmaker for the senatorial district.
Recall that INEC had on Feb. 25, declared Mr Abbo as the winner of the senatorial poll.
Dissatisfied with the declaration, Yohana and the PDP filed a petition before the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Yola, Adamawa State challenging the return of Abbo.
The tribunal, in its judgment, dismissed Yohanna’s petition for lacking in merit.
But Yohana through his counsel, Johnson Usman,SAN, approached the Appeal Court.
The Court of Appeal, after hearing arguments from parties, agreed with Mr Usman that based on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the results tendered clearly showed that there was no compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court, thereafter deducted the invalid votes from the parties and found that Yohanna and PDP won the election by majority of lawful votes.
The court proceeded to set aside the Certificate of Return issued to Abbo and ordered INEC to issue same to Yohanna as the valid winner of the election representing Adamawa North Senatorial District.
