Gov Yari to know fate January 8, 2016

The Supreme Court has fixed January 8, 2016 for judgement in the appeal filed by Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the validity of the election of Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State in the April 2015 governorship election.

Justice Onnoghen, who presided over a panel of seven justices of the apex court, gave the date Wednesday after hearing parties in the appeal.

The re-election of Yari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Election Petition Tribunal verdict, as well as the decision of the Court of Appeal, are being challenged on the grounds that Yari violated provisions of the electoral act and that there was over-voting across the state during the election.

The state Election Petition Tribunal, in its final sitting, struck out all the two petitions filed by the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidates, Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi and Abdullahi Shinkafi, challenging the declaration of Yari due to lack of merit and substance in all the two petitions.

Governor Yari won at both the tribunal and at the Court of Appeal, but the PDP candidate described the verdicts as a travesty of justice.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the gubernatorial candidate of APGA in Zamfara State, Abdullahi Shinkafi as lacking in merit.