Days after sacking Bauchi assembly Speaker, Appeal Court nullifies deputy’s election

Samuel Luka, Bauchi

Less than a week after the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city nullified election of the Speaker of the Bauchi state house of assembly, Rt. Honourable Sulaiman Abubakar and ordered a rerun election in 10 polling units, the same Court has sacked the Deputy Speaker of the House, Jamilu Umaru Dahiru Barade of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The 3-man panel of Justices, in a judgement delivered on Monday, set aside the judgement of the Bauchi State House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which earlier affirmed the election of Barade as the duly elected member representing Bauchi Central constituency.

The court therefore ordered rerun election in some polling units in the constituency, where the appellant, Aliyu Abdullahi Ilela, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), alleged over-voting.

The court further directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to retrieve the Certificate of Return earlier issued to the Deputy Speaker and conduct rerun election in the affected polling units.