Hajia Aisha Alhassan
Senator Iroegbu and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Hajia Aisha Alhassan, winner of the April 11 gubernatorial poll in the state.
The Justice Danladi Abubakar-led tribunal in its judgement on Saturday also directed the APC candidate to be sworn in place of Darius Ishaku as the governor of the Taraba state.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the judgment as another evidence of executive interference in the judiciary.
The party said the reason given by the tribunal for arriving at the bizarre decision is intriguing and further exposes the contradictions and double standards inherent in most tribunal rulings against PDP interests recently.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said in a statement on Saturday that the Taraba state tribunal ruling again brings to the fore the organized plan by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government to deploy all unorthodox means to decimate the opposition.
When sworn in, Alhassan will become the first elected female governor in Nigeria.
Abubakar in his ruling, quashed the 10 applications made by Ishaku and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to dismiss APC and Alhassan's petition for lack of merit.
The tribunal sacked governor Ishaku for failure to secure sponsorship of a registered political party in the April 11, 2015 Governorship election.
The governor was ordered to vacate office by tribunal on the ground that he was not sponsored by PDP or any political party as demanded by law.
Delivering a unanimous judgment in a petition filed by the APC and its Alhassan, the tribunal chairman, ordered that the APC candidate be sworn-in having scored the second largest votes in the governorship election.
In the judgment that lasted about three hours, the tribunal held that the purported nomination of the sacked governor by PDP breached section 85 of the Electoral Act 2010.
The tribunal held that it was a fundamental law in Nigeria that a candidate for an elective position must be duly nominated and sponsored by a registered political party before the candidature of such candidate can be legally valid.
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