The National and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Kano has nullified the election of Mukhtar Umar of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as the House of Representatives member for Tarauni.
The three-man panel held that Umar was not qualified, having forged his primary school certificate that was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The panel said the case of the petitioner, Hafizu Kawu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging Umar’s emergence, succeeded in proving a case of forgery against the NNPP candidate.
The tribunal, therefore, held that the NNPP had no candidate in the election and all the votes that were cast for Umar were wasted votes.
It directed INEC to withdraw the certificate of return earlier issued to Umar.
The tribunal held that Umar’s defence that he had made a change of name in 2022 did not hold water.
It also held that the said primary school (Hausawa Primary School) disowned the certificate tendered by the sacked lawmaker.
The tribunal said that after evaluating the witnesses’ statements on oath, as well as the documents tendered before it, it held that Umar forged his primary certificate and therefore was not qualified to contest for the Tarauni Federal House of Representatives election.
