Court Of Appeal Upholds Taraba Governor, Kefas Agbu’s Election, Throws Out APC Petition

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the election of the Taraba State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Kefas Agbu, as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.

The court dismissed the appeal brought before it by the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Sani Yahaya, who is challenging Agbu’s victory in the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Agbu winner of the poll after he pulled a total of 257,926 votes to defeat Yahaya who scored a total of 202,277 votes in the Election.

But Yahaya and his party had challenged the result of the governorship poll on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

Yahaya insisted that Agbu did not score the majority of lawful votes cast in the election, citing overvoting, mutilation of results sheets and alleged violence in some polling units.

However, the appellate in its judgment on Tuesday, held that the reliefs sought by Yahaya were inconsistent, having faulted the outcome of the polls on grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, yet praying the Court to declare him the winner of the same poll.

The court therefore dismissed the appeal for lacking merit and upheld the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal which on September 30 affirmed Agbu’s election.