Governor Mohammed Abubakar and his All Progressives Congress (APC) party have failed in their bid to stop the collation of Bauchi State governorship election results as the Federal High Court Abuja on Monday gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the greenlight to continue “its constitutional duty” and conclude the collation of the results of the March 9, 2019 governorship election in the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
Justice Inyang Ekwo handed down the decision, setting aside his earlier order of March 19, 2019 which had stopped the collation of the results.
He declined jurisdiction to hear the substantive case, ruling that “There is no legal impediment before the defendant to go on with the decision of the defendant to execute its decision in its press release.”
The suit, which had INEC as the sole defendant, was filed by APC and its candidate in the governorship election in the state, Governor Abubakar.
The plaintiff’s had challenged INEC’s decision to resume and conclude collation and announce the final results of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state, after the election in the state had been declared inconclusive.
INEC argued that only the Election Petition Tribunal has the jurisdiction to hear the matter since the election had already held in part.
Justice Ekwo turned out INEC’s view, holding that his court and the Election Petition Tribunal have concurrent jurisdiction to review the decision of INEC.
He however said it is more appropriate to allow the Election Petition Tribunal to hear the complaints of the plaintiffs since the tribunal would have a broader jurisdiction to hear the complaint and the ones that would arise after the final results had been announced, and the winner returned.
PDP’s candidate, Bala Mohammed was ahead before the collation of final results was stopped.
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