Bauchi governorship election: Court adjourns case against INEC

The court issued a restraining order against the electoral umpire on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, restricting it from concluding its planned collation and announcement of result until the hearing of an application filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Governor Mohammed Abubakar, in protest of the exercise.

Even though Justice Inyang Ekwo initially set the hearing of the suit for Wednesday, March 20, he has now adjourned it until Thursday, March 21, based on a request made by the plaintiffs' lawyer, Ahmed Raji (SAN).

Raji told the court that he needed more time to study and respond to a notice of preliminary objection, counter-affidavit and written address served on him by INEC, the defendant in the suit, on Wednesday.

Justice Ekwo said he would listen to the main suit as well as INEC's objection when hearing resumes on Thursday.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) monitored proceedings on Wednesday and has expressed intention to be joined as a defendant in the suit.

Bauchi controversy

After the collation of results for the March 9 election, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bala Mohammed, polled 469,512 votes while second-placed Governor Abubakar polled 465,453 votes, leaving the margin of victory at 4,059 votes and number of cancelled votes at 45,312 .

According to the "Margin of Lead Principle" contained in Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act and paragraph 41(e) and 43(b) of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines, the commission cannot declare a winner if the number of cancelled votes can mathematically affect the outcome of the election.

On Tuesday, March 12, INEC announced that the supplementary election would take place in Bauchi on March 23, along with five other states (Adamawa, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto) where governorship elections were similarly inconclusive.

However, the Bauchi supplementary election was cancelled three days later after INEC decided to approve the resumption, conclusion and announcement of result for the Tafawa Balewa local government area of the state which was initially cancelled due to the improper collation of results.

Abubakar said the commission's decision was "extra illegal" because only a court could take the decision that it did by cancelling the supplementary election after the initial inconclusive verdict.

The APC is demanding that INEC resumes its initial plan to conduct a supplementary election to conclude the contest rather than resume collation of results from Tafawa Balewa LGA.