Tribunal upholds Lalong’s election as Plateau governor

The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Monday upheld the election of Governor Simon Bako Lalong of the All Progressives Congress.
The Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, GNS Pwajok, had gone to the Tribunal to challenge the election of Lalong.
Pwajok filed the petition on the ground that the election was marred by over voting and intimidation of voters.
Delivering the judgment on Monday at High Court 6 amid water tight security, the Chairman of the three-man Tribunal, Justice Johnson Candide, said the petition lacked merit and the petitioners failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubts.
Candide said out of the 89 wards in the seven local governments the petitioners complained about, the evidence led could not be substantiated.
The Tribunal held that only two of the polling agents were able to prove their case.
He said the PDP presented 32 witnesses who speak mostly in Hausa Language and were unreliable.
He said the PDP’s presentation was so poor that the Tribunal lacked the power to nullify Lalong’s victory in the April 11, 2015 election.