Court Of Appeal Sacks Alhassan Doguwa, House Of Reps Leader

Alhassan Ado Doguwa.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna on Monday sacked a member representing Tudunwada/Doguwa Federal Constituency, Alhassan Ado Doguwa.

Mr Doguwa, who is the Majority Leader of the House, is the third ranking member of the House after Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

Recall that on September 5, the election petition tribunal sitting in Kano dismissed a petition filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Yusha’u Salisu, against Mr Doguwa’s election.

The tribunal said the PDP candidate failed to prove allegations of irregularities and over-voting in the election.

But in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, the Court of Appeal wondered how the tribunal arrived at the conclusion that PDP and its candidate had failed to prove their case.

While setting aside the tribunal judgement, the court nullified the entire election in the two local government areas Mr Doguwa represents as the whole process was marred by irregularities.

The appellate court held that the entire election could not stand as Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had omitted other parties from the final declaration of the result.

The court said INEC made a substantial breach by writing the results of only two parties out of 53 parties that participated in the election in Form EC 8 (II) E.

The court therefore ordered INEC to conduct fresh election within 90 days in the entire constituency.