The election of Muktar Umar Yarima has been declared invalid by the National and State House of Assembly elections petition tribunal, which is based in Kano.
Yerima represents the Tarauni Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives on the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) platform.
Yerima was declared ineligible by the tribunal’s three-person panel, which was chaired by Justice I.P. Chima, for having presented a falsified copy of his primary school diploma to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The tribunal claims that the petitioner’s case—Hafizu Kawu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging Yerima’s election was successful since it established evidence of forgery against the NNPP candidate.
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The tribunal ruled that the NNPP did not have a candidate in the election and that all votes cast for Yerima were invalid.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was then told to revoke the certificate of return that had previously been given to Yerima.
Yerima’s argument that he changed his name in 2022 was rejected by the tribunal since he has been using three different names (Umar Mukhtar Zakari) since 2009, and his primary school transcript still lists Umar Mukhtar.
Additionally, it was decided that Hausawa Primary School disowned the certificate issued by the fired MP.
