Tribunal sacks Taraba speaker

The speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly Abel Diah has been sacked by the elections petitions tribunal yesterday.

The national and state assembly elections petition tribunal sitting in Jalingo delivered judgment on the petition filed by the APC House of Assembly candidate Mr Emmanuel Bongo challenging the election of Diah.

The tribunal observed that there were evidence of irregularities in the disputed polling units. Mrs A. M Ali, a member of the tribunal, who read the judgment ordered a rerun in eight of the 48 polling units in the constituency.

She said Diah’s certificate of return had been set aside due to “substantial lack of compliance to the Electoral Act” in the election in the affected areas.

Ali said the petitioner, Bongo had proved to the court beyond reasonable doubt that election in the areas was marred by irregularities. Earlier, counsel to the petitioner, Mr Festus Idepeto, prayed the court to cancel the election in nine polling units because the mandatory accreditation of voters did not hold.

The tribunal therefore ordered INEC to retrieve the certificate of return issued to the embattled speaker and also conduct fresh elections in eight polling units within 90 days.

The polling units are GDSS Mbamga, Mbamga Petel, Bang Health care, Mararaba GDSS Bang, Vakude MbamMbam, Ndarup, Ndeng, and Mbara.