One week after he declared his intention to challenge the election of Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir as the Governor-elect, Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) are yet to file their petition at the Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in State which has so far received 27 petitions across the political parties.
When our Correspondent visited the High Court Complex venue of the Tribunal, the Secretary, Bello Abdullahi disclosed that so far as at Tuesday (9th of April, 2019) his office was yet to receive the petition from the APC and its gubernatorial candidate challenging the gubernatorial election results.
While answering questions from Journalists on the commencement of the hearing of the petitions, the Secretary said that “the deadline was fixed from the date of declaration of who won the election within three weeks”, adding that it is left for whoever wishes to file his petition within the stipulated time”.
Bello Abdullahi also maintained that before now the Tribunal had received 26 petitions but is now 27 with the one from State House of Assembly representing Lere/Bula constituency in Tafawa Balewa which came in later.
He added that, “the election petition so far for National Assembly is fifteen cases, Senate has seven and House of Reps eight petitions, while State Assembly has Twelve cases, making Twenty Seven, as at today Tuesday 9th April 2019”.
He concluded that, as soon as possible the election petition hearing would commence, as no date has been fixed yet.
It could be recalled that, Governor Mohammed. A. Abubakar after his return to the state last Wednesday, took a back turn to declare his intention to challenge the victory of the PDP and it’s governor-elect, Bala Mohammad, after he had earlier conceded defeat immediately the result was announced.
The Governor attributed the u-turn to his party’s decision to challenge the outcome of the governorship election in the state.