Adamawa guber poll: Tribunal fixes July 25 for judgment

The Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Yola has fixed July 25, for judgment in the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Action Congress Nigeria (ACN), Markus Gundiri, challenging the election of Murtala Nyako.

Mr. Nyako of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the February 4, 2012 polls by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The chairman of the Tribunal, Bitrus Sanga, announced the date at the Monday sitting of the tribunal where final written addresses and replies on points of law by counsels to parties, were adopted.

The petitioner had dragged Mr. Nyako; his deputy, Bala Ngilari; the PDP; INEC and two others before the tribunal challenging the result of the election declared by INEC.

The petitioner, through his lead counsel, Charles Edosamwan, alleged irregularities in some polling units in 11 of the 21 Local Governments Areas of the state.

He prayed the tribunal to nullify the results of the election in the affected units and declare him winner of the election having scored the highest number of valid votes cast.

The first and second respondents, Mr. Nyako and his deputy had through their counsel, Kanu Agabi, urged the tribunal to strike out the case for lack of merit.

The respondents described the grounds of the petitioners as speculative and lacking in merit.

J.N Egwuonwu and Hassan Liman, counsels to PDP and INEC respectively, called for the dismissal of the petition.

The tribunal was filled to capacity in spite of the tight security and was witnessed by the state deputy governor, the ACN candidate, and his running mate, Abdulrazaq Namdaz, as well as other party officials.

Five political parties contested the polls which Mr. Nyako won by 302,953 votes while Mr. Gundiri came second with 241,023 votes followed by Buba Marwa of CPC who polled 107,546 votes.