Tribunal Reserves Judgement On Adamawa North Senate Seat

The Election Petitions Tribunal has reserved judgment on a petition filed by Rev. Amos Yohanna challenging the election of Senator Ishaku Abbo of Adamawa Northern senatorial zone.

The chairman of the three-man tribunal, Justice Aloysius Okuma,  said the judgment was adjourned to a later day to be communicated to both parties in the suit after the petitioner and respondents had adopted their final written addresses.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Amos Yohanna, took  Abbo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and INEC before the tribunal challenging the election which brought Abbo to power.

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In his petition marked: EPT/AD/SEN/02/2023, Hon. Rev Amos Yohanna alleged that the election of Sen. Abbo was invalid by reasons of corrupt practices or non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

He averred that Sen. Abbo was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast during the election, alleging overvoting at various polling units, false entries, alterations and cancellation of votes at several polling units.

He argued that some alterations and cancellations were not signed by the presiding officers of the polling units and prayed the tribunal to set aside the election of Abbo.

He also sought an order returning him as the duly elected candidate for the northern senatorial seat, having polled the highest number of lawful votes cast during the exercise.

During adopting the last written address filed on June 11, 2023, Yohanna, through his counsel, Jerry Owe, prayed the tribunal to find and hold that the petition has merit.

Owe prayed the tribunal to grant all the reliefs sought by his client and further prayed it to dismiss the preliminary objections by the respondents and hear the petition on merit.

On his part, Sen. Ishaku Abbo had while adopting his last written address filed on June 19 through his counsel, Sam. Ologunorisha (SAN) urged the tribunal to dismiss the entire petition for lacking merit.