Challenging the election that brought El-Rufai to power, Polycarp Danladi, who came third in the April 11, 2015 governorship poll ran on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance. He sought for the tribunal to nullify the state governorship election.
Danladi cited the cases of over-voting, exclusion of the result of his party in some local council and also alleged that valid votes exceeded the number of accredited voters.
The APGA governorship candidate is kicking against the results of 14 council areas in the state alleging that the election did not comply substantially with the Electoral Act, The Sun reports.
The counsel to the first, second and third respondents, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, Mustapha Abubakar and Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN), respectively, had urged the court to dismiss the petition for lack of merit.
Mustapha said: “To the best of our responsibility, we have been able to demonstrate to the court that the petition is lacking in material merit.
“The petitioner and his counsel have not been able to prove their case that there is substantial non-conformity with the provisions of the electoral act. So we are very sure that the petition lack merit and the tribunal will judge in our favour.”
Supporting the submission of his colleague, Oyeyipo said: “I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that we have placed sufficient facts before the tribunal to enable it arrive at a decision that we are hoping would be in our favour.
“I am also convinced that the petitioners have not done enough to warrant the decision in their favour. So, we are optimistic that we will all smile at the end of the day and the good people of Kaduna State will continue to enjoy the good governance of Gov El-Rufai.“
