By Ibrahim Hassan,Kaduna

Kaduna – The Election Petition Court sitting in Kaduna has dismissed all petitions against the Senator representing Kaduna Central, Lawal Adamu Usman( Mr LA) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and affirmed his victory at the polls.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Abdullahi Muhammad Sani Dattijo had petitioned the Tribunal against Mr LA and challenged his election as a Senator.

The APC Senatorial candidate had petitioned on 4 grounds which were of the issue of school certificate forgery, over voting, non compliance and on the issue of nomination and sponsorship of the first respondent by the PDP.

According to the 3-man panel led by Justice H.H Kereng, all the grounds presented by the petitioners’ had failed and were dismissed .

“The elections and return of the first respondent is hereby affirmed ;This petition is hereby dismissed”, he ruled.

Justice Kerang had said that the petitioners’ failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the first respondent’s NECO results and other School certificates were forged.

The petitioners’ failed to prove that the first respondent was not duly elected by majority of votes in the February 25 polls,” he said.

“The APC got 182035 votes while PDP got 225066 votes giving a margin of 43031;The petitioners’ has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the respondent didn’t get majority votes.Therefore, this issue is in favour of the first respondent and against the petitioner”,he said.

The judge also stated that the petioners couldn’t prove that there was non compliance which affected the elections results, adding that the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidate was the responsibility of the political party not court,while resolving issue in favour of the respondent.

Personal Assistant to the Senator, Jalal Falal appreciated God for granting them victory.He said the outcome of the judgement had validated the Senator’s Election and urged the opposition to join hands with Senator LA to work for the progress and development of Kaduna Central.