BEVERLY HILLS, November 07, (THEWILL) – The governor of Taraba State, Mr. Darius Dickson Ishaku, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , has been sacked.
The State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Appeal Court in Abuja sacked the governor for failing to secure sponsorship of a registered political party in the April 11 governorship election in the state.
The Tribunal, which ordered Ishaku to vacate office as governor because he was not sponsored by PDP or any political party as demanded by law, also directed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the election, Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan, be sworn in as governor immediately having scored the second largest votes in the election.
The judgement, which lasted about three hours, by tribunal chairman, Musa Danladi Abubakar, was based on a petition filed by the APC and its governorship candidate, Alhassan, challenging the victory and declaration of Ishaku as winner of the April 11 election in the state by INEC.
The tribunal held that the purported nomination of Ishaku by PDP breached section 85 of the Electoral Act 2010.
The tribunal ruled that it was a fundamental law in Nigeria that a candidate for an elective position must be dully nominated and sponsored by a registered political party before the candidature of such candidate can be legally valid.
According to the tribunal, there was overwhelming evidence that PDP in Taraba State did not do any primary election that could have led to emergence of anybody as a sponsored candidate.
The tribunal recalled the evidence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on subpoena during the hearing of the petition when the commission claimed that it has no record of any primary election by PDP in Taraba State whereas Section 85 of the Electoral Act made it mandatory that INEC must be given 21 days notice of a convention or a primary where candidates are to be nominated for election.
The tribunal therefore held that since Ishaku was not sponsored by any known registered political party, he cannot lay claim to votes cast for any political party and cannot as well claimed to be an independent candidate in the election.
