Appeal tribunal affirms Maikalangu’s PDP as AMAC chairman.
By Sadiq Abubakar, Abuja.
The Appeal tribunal sitting at FCT High Court, Apo Abuja, has set aside the judgement of the election petition tribunal which declared Murtala Usman Karshi, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the February 12,2022 chairmanship election of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and affirmed the incumbent chairman of the council, Christopher Zaka Maikalangu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the election.
In a unanimous judgement by a member panel led Justice Suleiman Belgore, on Saturday, described the lower tribunal’s judgement which declared APC’s Usman Karshi as winner of the February 12,2022 AMAC chairmanship election as not only perverse but evil.
He said the lower tribunal was wrong to have relied on evidence of Murtala Karshi’s APC who tendered a different election result sheet form EC8A and declared him as winner of the February 12, 2022 chairmanship polls of AMAC, instead of relying on original certified true copy of result sheet form EC8A tendered as evidence by the first respondent, Christopher Maikalangu of the PDP.
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He said the appeal tribunal was fascinated with the way and manner the original certified true copy of the result tendered by INEC, saying the lower tribunal ought to have compared the result with the one tendered by Murtala Karshi’s APC but failed to do so and ended nulifying election of Maikalangu’s PDP that was duly declared by INEC as winner of the election.
He said Murtala Karshi’s APC who is under a duty to prove his claims at the lower tribunal did not do so, in which he said APC’s Karshi has failed woefully in his petition, saying elections are won at the polling units not at court.
“The lower tribunal decided to do a hatchet job by throwing away the baby with the bath water. And what is good for the goose is also said is good for the gander. However, our duty as court is to make judicial pronouncement based on what was right, as the law can not command impossibility. The essence of justice is to do what is true and correct,” he said.
He, therefore, set aside the judgement of the lower which declared Karshi’s APC as winner and affirmed Maikalangu’s PDP as duly elected chairman of AMAC, saying ” the judgement of the lower tribunal is not just perverse but evil,” he added.
The presiding judge, while ruling also on a cross appeal over allegations of age falsification and certificate forgery by the APC’s Karshi against the incumbent chairman of AMAC Christopher Maikalangu of PDP, dismissed the suit which he said it was a pre -election matter.
Our correspondent will recalled that a three members panel of the FCT election petition which sat at Magistrate Court Wuse zone 2 Abuja, led by Magistrate Muinat Olashade Oyekan, had on August, nullified the election of the AMAC chairman, Christopher Maikalangu Zaka, of the PDP and declared Murtala Usman Karshi, as winner of the February 12 2022 council polls after scoring highest number of votes cast at the election.
She ordered INEC to withdraw certificate of return issued to Maikalangu of PDP to Usman Karshi of APC, while she also ordered Karshi to sworn-in immediately by FCT minister, Muhammad Musa Bello or any person acting on behalf of the minister.
The AMAC chairman, Maikalangu Zaka of the PDP, who was dissatisfied with the judgement, filled an appealed at the appeal tribunal.
