Two House of Representatives members had cases filed against them dismissed by the National Assembly Election cases Tribunal in Yola, Adamawa State.
The applications filed against Jingi Rufai, a representative of Maiha/Mubi North/Mubi South federal constituency, and Mohammed Salihu, who represents Girei/Yola South/Yola North federal constituency, were both dismissed by the tribunal on Monday.
The two candidates for the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Magaji Jaafar and Abubakar Baba Zango, brought the two PDP members before the tribunal.
Zango claimed in his plea that Salihu had submitted fake birth and basic school transcripts. In light of his second-place finish in the election, he requested that the tribunal order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to award him a certificate of return.
Jaafar had also filed a petition, claiming that overvoting had invalidated Rufai’s election as the winner of the election held on February 25, 2023.
Additionally, he requested that the tribunal invalidate INEC’s declaration of Rufai as the election’s victor and order the electoral authority to revoke the certificate of return it had issued to the PDP candidate. Additionally, he asked the tribunal to direct INEC to declare him the legitimate winner.
Justice Aloysius Okuma, the tribunal’s chairman, delivered the decision in the petition filed by Abubakar Magaji Jaafar and ruled that the petitioner had failed to present convincing evidence to support his claims. He completely rejected the plea and gave Jingi Rufai N600,000 in place of the petitioner.
In his ruling on Abubakar Baba Zango’s lawsuit against Mohammed Salihu, Justice Nkereuuwem Obot dismissed the lawsuit as being without merit and fined Zango N600,000.