By Ibrahim Ramalan
Abuja
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba state has filed his appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, seeking to quash the ruling of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which nullified his election and declared Aisha Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner.
In the notice of appeal filed by lawyers led by Kanu Agabi (SAN) yesterday, the governor is asking the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the election petition tribunal delivered on November 17, allow his appeal and for the court to set aside all the consequential orders made by the tribunal as well dismiss the petition filed by Alhassan.
Respondents in the suit are Aisha Alhassan, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The appellant based his appeal on 11 grounds and is asking the appellate court to rule that the tribunal erred in law by allowing the witness statements even though the statements were not sworn to, were not accompanied by any affidavit and no oath was administered on the witnesses.
The governor averred in his appeal that since the witness statements were not sworn to all, then it was wrong for the tribunal to adopt or modify the statements in strict compliance with Section 13 of the Oaths Act.
Furthermore, he argued that the tribunal was wrong to nullify his election by ruling that Alhassan’s petition was competent and substantially complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act even though extraneous matters were introduced into the petition in violation of Section 138 of the Electoral Act.
Ishaku contended that it was wrong for the tribunal to declare he wasn’t qualified to run for governor because he wasn’t sponsored by any party, despite the fact that no substantive relief for the tribunal to order a fresh election was sought by the APC candidate.
