The Federal High Court in Abuja has stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) from proceeding with the collation and announcement of the result of the governorship election in Bauchi State held on March 9, 2019.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the order on Tuesday on the strength of an ex parte application filed by the All Progressive Congress and the incumbent governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar.
He held that the order would last till the determination of the suit brought before the court by the two plaintiffs.
In the ex parte motion, the APC and Governor Abubakar prayed the court for an order of Interim Injunction restraining Inec from resuming, concluding or announcing the result of the Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State in respect of the election to the office of Governor of Bauchi State.
Justice Ekwo had on Monday while ruling on the ex parte ordered Inec to appear before him on Tuesday to show cause why the order sought by the two plaintiffs ought not to be granted.
Instead of complying with the order of the court, INEC represented, by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Tanimu Inuwa, approached the court with a motion challenging its jurisdiction.
Counsel to the plaintiffs, Ahmed Raji, however, objected to the application of INEC, informing the court that the order issued on Monday asking the electoral body to show cause why the requests of the plaintiffs should not be granted had not been obeyed.
Concise News reports that Inec is set to resume the collation of result for the March 9 governorship election in Bauchi State.
The exercise will take place in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, following the disruption of the collation process which led to the cancellation of results for the entire LGA.
This comes one week after the commission declared the keenly contested election inconclusive following its observation that the margin between the two leading candidates was less than the number of cancelled votes.
According to the Returning Officer, Kyari Mohammed, results collated showed that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bala Mohammed, polled 469,512 votes, while the incumbent governor, Mohammed Abubakar, secured 465,453 votes.
source:
www.concisenews.global/2019/03/19/court-stops-inec-from-collating-announcing-results-in-bauchi/
