TRIBUNAL NULLIFIES GOVERNOR’S ELECTION …SENATOR ALSO

Governor Ibrahim Idris

The election tribunal sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State has nullified the election of Governor Ibrahim Idris on the grounds that some candidates from other rival parties were unjustly excluded from the April 2006 Governorship election.

Former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu and two others had filed cases before the Election Petition Tribunal in Lokoja, the state capital, to challenge the result of the last month’s elections.

Audu, in his suit, prayed that the tribunal should declare the governorship elections null and void, citing the Electoral Acts 2007 and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigerial.

He also prayed for a fresh election to be conducted in the state and for his participation as a governorship candidate presented by his party.

Governor Idris had also come under strong accusations of certificate forgery.

The saga began when a group calling itself Kogi Liberation Movement (KLM) called a press conference where it announced that the governor, while filling INEC Form CF001, claimed that he wrote the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at King’s Commercial College, Buguma, Rivers state in 2001

Also, the election of Senator Tanko Ayuba, PDP Zamfara State was nullified by the election tribunal sitting in Zamfara on the ground of irregularity and fraud.