The Governor of Kaduna State and All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the March 18 election, Uba Sani, says there is no confusion about Thursday’s tribunal judgment dismissing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Isah Ashiru’s petition against Sani’s victory.
The tribunal’s 2-1 majority ruling declared that if the petition were not dismissed for lacking merit, it would have ordered a supplementary election in 22 polling units within 90 days.
Some media reports (not by Channels TV) wrongly claimed that the tribunal unseated the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
“I think there’s no confusion there. Like I said, for some of us who were involved in the draft of the Electoral Act, there’s nothing like confusion there,” Sani said on Channels Television’s Politics Today, later that day.
“The case was dismissed because it lacked merit. The preliminary objection to the application was made out of time. And of course, if you look at the Electoral Act, that alone has made their case abandoned. That is on the point of law. There are a lot of cases like that.”
The governor argued that a party could either win in a political battle “or you win a propaganda battle”.
He alleged that the PDP “misinformed and misled some very important media houses and I became extremely disappointed in them”.
Sani frowned on the rush of “reputable media houses” to the press without waiting for the final ruling, describing it as “really unfortunate”.
Calling for caution, the 52-year-old noted that the fight for freedom of expression via social media should not be undermined as he believes people should be allowed to express themselves.
“At the end of the day, for me, what is more important is that the ruling has been made, the case has been dismissed and there is nothing anybody can do because it is on the point of law,” he stated.
“What the judges said is clear. There was a Supreme Court ruling already that judges are allowed to read all the applications by the opposing party. But in any case, that does not stop the case from being dismissed if there is anything that warrants that.
“And that’s what they do. They dismissed the case on the basis of the fact that they abandoned their own case.”