Supreme Court Orders Tribunal To Retry Dankwambo's Case

Against the dismissal of the petition presented before the Justice A Nwobodo-led governorship election tribunal against the Gombe state governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, the Supreme Court has ordered a retry of the case, Vanguard reports.

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Dankwambo

Dankwambo who contested a re-election bid as governor of the state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party had been challenged at the tribunal by the African Democracy Congress (ADC) and its candidate, Malam Ja’afar Abubakar, having been declared winner of the April 11 governorship election.

The ADC and the Abubakar challenged the election on the grounds that it was marred by violence and irregularities.

But Justice Nwobodo after reviewing the evidence at hand dismissed the petition saying that it lacked merit and substantial proof.

He said the petitioners did not present clear evidence, stressing that they relied on hearsay, which is inadmissible in the court of law.

The tribunal also based the dismissal on the question of competency of the petitioner’s lawyer, Sam Kagbo, as a legal practitioner.

The tribunal disclosed that the petitioner’s lawyer had signed the petition as Sam Kagbo whereas on the roll of lawyers, the name was Sam Peter Kagbo.

However, in line with the respondent’s objection, the tribunal agreed with the counsel and consequently dismissed the petition.

Subsequently, the ADC had appealed the case challenging the decision of the tribunal which led to the Court of Appeal ruling that the tribunal should re-try the petition.

Dankwambo also had to approach the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal.

In tandem with the ruling at the Court of Appeal, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun of the apex court dismissed the appeal on grounds that the tribunal had only emphasised on technicalities in arriving at its decision, stressing that the tribunal was wrong to have dismissed the petition.

Governor Dankwambo had also been challenged in another case with the All Progressives Congress candidate, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya.

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About daltose blog

My names are Dalamu Oluwatosin Abiodun, hailed from Ijebu North Local Government Ogun State, I acquire my First Degree in Computer Science/ Mathematics (B.sc Computer Science) at Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago Iwoye Ogun state. I am a programmer. I like reading, writing and exploring.