Appeal Court Affirms Bala Mohammed’s Election As Bauchi Governor

The victory of Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State in the March 18 governorship election was confirmed by the Appeal Court, Abuja Division, on Friday.

Sadique Abubakar, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), filed the appeal after the tribunal judgement supported Mohammed’s victory.

The court ruled that each party to the matter should bear their own costs and awarded no cost as the three justices on the panel were unanimous.

The presiding justice read the judgement following the order of the appellant’s plea before the appeal court.

The appellant pleaded that the election be cancelled because the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled out, as plea number one. The court ruled that the appellant could not prove this allegation with the required evidence.

The court also ruled that the appellant could not state the polling units involved in the said allegations or what was missing in the forms. It further held that the appellant could not prove how the results of the election were affected by the improperly filled-out forms.

The court held that the witnesses brought by the appellant could not prove that they knew what the forms looked like, while applauding the tribunal for doing a detailed job by examining the evidence before it.

The appellant also pleaded that there was massive non-compliance with the electoral laws. The court ruled that the appellant could not prove this either, as some of the witnesses who testified did not vote on election day, and those who voted only spoke based on what they witnessed in their polling units alone.

The court agreed with the tribunal on the issue of the alleged unprofessional conduct of INEC officials, saying it was not part of the plea by the appellant at the lower court and that it was not argued and pleaded.

The plea was ruled in favour of the first respondent, Mohammed.

The appellant also pleaded that there were fraudulent cancellations, mutilations, and alterations to favour the PDP candidate as another plea. The appeals court noted that falsification of results is a criminal matter that could lead to the cancellation of election results, if proven.

However, the court said the appellant had the responsibility to prove this and had to present the genuine one if he claimed the one presented by INEC was falsified.

The court noted that the appellant, sadly, could not prove this. The court also said the appellant could have at least presented a genuine result along with the falsified one.