The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal, on Monday, sacked Joshua Gana, the son of Jerry Gana, Nigeria’s former minister of information, from the House of Representatives.
Joshua Gana was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Edati/Lavun/Mokwa Federal Constituency of Niger State in the February 25 general election.
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Gana, who won the election with 47,942 votes as against 40,003 votes scored by the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), Abdullahi Usman Gbatamagi, was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Dissatisfied with the declaration, the APC and its candidate, Gbatamagi, through their counsel, Johnson Usman, challenged the return of Gana.
The petition is via a petition number: EPT/NG/HR/06/2023 on the ground that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022 in that the margin of win was less than the permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in the polling units where elections did not hold or were cancelled.
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Delivering the judgment on Monday, the three-member tribunal headed by Justice Sylvester Godspower agreed with Usman’s arguments.
The tribunal proceeded to invalidate votes in the 26 polling units of the constituency, thereby reducing the votes of Gana to 46,494 votes while that of Gbatamagi now stood at 39,159 votes, leaving the PVCs collected in the affected polling units at 14,411.
The tribunal consequently set aside the certificate of return issued to Joshua Gana by INEC and ordered the commission to conduct a supplementary election in the 26 polling units within 90 days of the judgment with a view to determining the winner of the election.
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