BREAKING- Supreme Court affirms Lalong, Mohammed’s victory

The Supreme Court on Monday in Abuja upheld the victory of Simon Lalong and Sen. Bala Mohammed as duly elected governors of Plateau and Bauchi respectively...

A seven-member panel of Justices of the apex court took the decision shortly after counsel to parties adopted their written addresses as their brief of arguments in the suits.

Useni had challenged the election of incumbent Gov. Lalong as duly elected governor of Plateau on grounds that he did not win the majority of the votes cast at the poll.

He also alleged substantial non-compliance with the electoral laws and other irregularities as grounds for nullification of the return of Lalong.

However, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations.

The court in a unanimous judgment held that the appellant, Useni failed to prove allegations made against the victory of Lalong at the March 9 governorship election in Plateau.

The apex court in the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Paul Galinje accordingly affirmed the election of Lalong as a duly elected governor of Plateau.

The apex court upheld the decisions of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal which affirmed Lalong as a duly elected governor.

Similarly, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Sen. Bala Muhammed of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor of Bauchi State in the 2019 general elections.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Musa Dantijo, the court dismissed the petition by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammed Abubakar for lacking in merit.

Abubakar in their petition against the election of Sen. Bala Mohammed, alleged non-compliance with the electoral laws.

The Supreme Court, however, held it that the appellant failed to prove that there was non-compliance that substantially affected the conduct of the election.

According to Dantijo, the Supreme Court holds that he failed to demonstrate the perverseness of the concurrent judgment of the lower courts to warrant the court to grant his prayers.

vanguard