The Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kaduna has affirmed Senator Lawal Adamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Kaduna Central Senatorial election conducted in February.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abdullahi Muhammad-Sani had filed a petition challenging the election of Senator Adamu on four grounds. The grounds were on the issue of certificate forgery, over voting, non-compliance and the issue of nomination of the first respondent by his party the PDP.

The three-man panel led by Justice H.H Kereng said that all the grounds present- ed by the petitioners’ had failed and were dismissed. “The elections and return of the first respondent is hereby affirmed; This petition is hereby dismissed,” he ruled.

In his judgement, the judge stated that the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the first respondent’s NECO results and other School certificates presented were forged. According to him, the petitioners also failed to prove that the first respondent was not duly elected by the majority of votes in the February 25 polls.

He therefore said the issue is in favour of the first respondent and against the petitioner. On the issue of non-compliance, the judge stated that the petitioners could not prove that there was non-compliance which affected the outcome of the election.

He added that the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidates was the responsibility of the political party, not the court while resolving issues in favour of the respondent.