The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Midala Balami as the member of the House of Representatives for Askira-Uba/Hawul Federal Constituency of Borno State. Balami was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission with 28,820 votes. His closest opponent, Tarfaya Asarya of the All Progressives Congress, received 25,383 votes.
Asarya had challenged the result, claiming that Balami was not a valid candidate due to issues with the primary election conducted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which produced Balami as its candidate. Asarya argued that the primary election was held in violation of an order of the Supreme Court, which had nullified a previous primary poll conducted by the PDP in the constituency. Asarya claimed that the fresh primary poll, which led to Balami’s emergence as a candidate, was conducted outside the 14-day timeframe ordered by the Supreme Court.
However, the three-member panel tribunal had dismissed Asarya’s petition, stating that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain issues related to the nomination of a political party’s candidate.
Asarya then appealed the tribunal’s decision, but the Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s judgment. The appellate court panel found no reason to set aside the decision of the Borno State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, affirming Balami as the valid winner of the election. The panel concluded that the appellants had chosen the wrong venue to ventilate their grievances related to the candidate’s eligibility.