The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in Kaduna state during the 2019 general elections, Isah Ashiru
Kudan, on Tuesday filed an application seeking for a recount of the
votes cast in the March 9 governorship poll.
The counsel to Ashiru, Elisha Kurah (SAN), who submitted the
application during the commencement of pre-hearing session in
Kaduna before the Justice I. M Bako-led tribunal, disclosed this
today.
Kurah, who spoke to newsmen shortly after the adjournment of the
case said: “We filed an application requesting to recount the votes
cast during the election. It is very crucial as we are alleging
which is supported by the evidence we have that most of the results
declared were phantom votes.”
“Votes were just inflicted randomly just to make the APC have
the semblance of winning; they were back up by votes in the ballot
boxes. So, we want a complete recount of the votes cast in the
governorship election. We are expecting that the results would show
that the PDP actually won the election,” Kurah said.
On his part, the counsel to Governor Nasiru El-Rufai,
Abdulhakeem Mustapha, said: “We intend to oppose the applications
on their merit. We have a preliminary objection that the petition
is not competent. They (PDP and Ashiru) have an application that
they want the tribunal to direct that the ballots be counted one
after the other in open court, and we intend to oppose those
applications.
“The Electoral Act is in our favour; the Kaduna people have
spoken. They picked governor El-Rufai and nothing is going to
change that. We are here to defend the mandate the people have
given to the governor. We intend to convince the tribunal that the
petition lacks merit and it should be dismissed,” Mustapha
said.
Justice Bako later adjourned the session to May 25 to allow the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the two other
respondents in the petition time to respond to the PDP’s
application on votes recount.
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more tribunal-pdps-ashiru-seeks-recount-of-ballot-in-kaduna/