Tribunal nullifies Gombe speaker’s election

An Election Petitions Tribunal sitting on Tuesday in Gombe State has nullified the victory of Abubakar Luggerewo, the incumbent Speaker of the state House of Assembly.

Luggerewo represents Akko central in the House.

Recall that Bashir Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party had dragged Luggerewo of All Progressives Congress, and the Independent National Electoral Commission to the tribunal over the cancellation of results in polling units 001, 024 and 014 in Kumo East which allegedly gave APC an edge.

Luggerewo was recently announced as the Zonal Vice Chairman, North-East of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria and Chairman of the North-East Speakers Forum.

In his rulings, Justice Michael Ugar has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) wrongly cancelled the results of polling units 001, 024, and 014 in the Kumo East constituency.

The tribunal while passing judgement said, “a rerun within the next 30 days of judgement in Kumo East 018 to ascertain the actual winner between Luggerewo of the All Progressive Congress and Bashir Abdullahi, of the Peoples Democratic Party.”

However, Abubakar Luggerewo, the incumbent Speaker of the Gombe State House of Assembly, has said that he will appeal the ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal which nullified his victory in the Akko Central constituency election.

Luggerewo, said he was not at the court when the ruling was delivered but was briefed about it.

“The next line of action is that we are going to appeal,” he said.