Finally Revealed Why Tribunal Sacked Sitting PDP Gov For Mama Taraba

Facts have emerged on why Governor Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was sacked by the Taraba state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja a few hours ago.

The PDP man was sent packing and the court ordered the immediate swearing-in of Mrs Aisha Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the sitting that lasted about three hours on Saturday, November 7, 2015.


Impeccable sources have now revealed that the governor was sent packing for failure to secure sponsorship a registered political party in the April 11, 2015 governorship election.

The sources disclosed that Darius was not sponsored by the PDP or any political party as is required by the law.

In his judgement on the petition filed by Hajia Alhassan and her party, APC, the tribunal chairman, Musa Danladi Abubakar ordered that the APC candidate be sworn-in having scored the second largest votes in the governorship election on the grounds that the purported nomination of the sacked governor by PDP breached section 85 of the Electoral Act 2010.

According to the tribunal, it remains a fundamental law in Nigeria that a candidate for an elective position must be dully nominated and sponsored by a registered political party before the candidature of such candidate can be legally valid.

And the PDP man clearly violated this law as there was overwhelming evidence that the party did not do any primary
election that could have led to emergence of anybody as a sponsored candidate.

In its ruling, the tribunal recalled the evidence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on subpoena during the hearing of the petition, when the commission claimed that it has no record of any primary election by PDP in the state.

This also clearly contradicts Section 85 of the Electoral Act which made it mandatory that INEC must be given 21 days notice of a convention or a primary where candidates are to be nominated for election.

With all the listed evidence, the tribunal held that the ousted governor was not duly sponsored by any known registered political party, and cannot therefore lay claim to votes cast for any political party.

It is remains unclear if the PDP will approach the appellate court to challenge the verdict of the tribunal.

Meanwhile, here is how the Nigerian media announced the victory of the woman popularly called Mama Taraba earlier.