Aisha Alhassan, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Taraba state governorship election, has lost at the Appeal Court in her bid to unseat the incumbent governor of Taraba, Darius Ishaku.
On Thursday, the appeal court sitting in Abuja ruled that the Alhassan had no locus standi – the right or capacity to appear in a court – to question the decision of the PDP. It overruled the November 7 verdict of the election tribunal which declared Alhassan as governor.
The Abdul Aboki-led five-man panel ruled that the PDP fielded Ishaku and he was accepted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with no complaints. INEC announced PDP’s Darius Ishaku as winner with 369,318 votes defeating APC’s Al-hassan who polled 275,984 at the ballot in April. Though Aboki admitted the testimony of the INEC officer, who testified that the PDP primaries violated sections 85 and 87 of the electoral law, he said the APC had no locus standi on the matter.
Of the five issues raised by the appellant, two were in favour of the APC and another two of the PDP; while the last issue on declaring Alhassan automatic governor after tribunal’s disqualification of Ishaku, was overruled by the appeal.
Aboki ruled that it was “gross mis-direction” on the part of the tribunal to have declared Al-hassan as winner, declaring its initial decision as null and void, having violated the electoral act.
