Appeal Court upholds Gov. Dankwambo’s election

The Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed by All Progressive Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya, challenging the election of Ibrahim Dankwambo as the governor.

Mr. Yahaya had appealed the judgement of the election petition tribunal, which earlier dismissed his petition, and affirmed the election of Mr. Dankwambo.

Dismissing the appeal for lack of merit in a judgement delivered by Justice H.M. Ogunwumiju, the appellate court resolved 12 issues in its decision.

Nine of the grounds for appeal were, however, resolved in favour of Mr. Dankwambo.

The Appeal Court judges, in upholding the ruling of tribunal, said the tribunal was right to have upheld the victory of Mr. Dankwambo of the PDP as the duly elected governor.

While resolving the issues against the appellant, the court upheld that the petitioner “must succeed on the strength of his case and not on the weakness of the respondent”.

The court stated further that the evidence adduced by the APC gubernatorial candidate was not enough to overturn the ruling of the tribunal.

“When an election is being challenged for non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the petitioner must prove by advancing credible evidence that the winner emerged through non-compliance,” he said.

The speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, Nasiru Nunu, called on the APC to accept the verdict in good faith and join hands with the governor to develop the state.