Appeal Court upholds Kefas Agbu’s election as Taraba governor
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Tuesday, affirmed Kefas Agbu’s election as governor of Taraba State.
Agbu won the March 18 election in Taraba after he polled 257,926 votes to defeat the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Sani Yahaya, who got 202,277 votes in the exercise.
Yahaya later challenged the outcome of the election at the state election petitions tribunal on two grounds.
He alleged that the poll was marred by non-compliance with the electoral act by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The NNPP candidate also claimed that Agbu did not score the majority of lawful votes in the election.
The tribunal dismissed the petition for lack of merit in its ruling delivered on September 30.
Unhappy with the ruling, Yahaya approached the appeal court to set it aside.
In his ruling on Tuesday, the appellate court upheld the tribunal’s verdict that declared Agbu as duly elected governor of Taraba State.
It held that the reliefs sought by the appellant were inconsistent having faulted the outcome of the election for non-compliance with the electoral act but asked to be declared as winner of the same exercise.
