Appeal Court Affirms Sen. Peter Jiya Of Niger South Senatorial Seat Election

Yakubu Busari

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has confirmed the election of Sen Peter Jiya of the PDP as the Senator-elect for the Niger South Senatorial District of Niger State.

This affirmation follows the dismissal of petitions challenging his victory in the February 25 election.

The petitioners are the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC Muhammed Bima as the candidate in the election of Niger South Senatorial District that was defeated before the election tribunal where the petitioners headed to the appeal court.

However, the Court of Appeal panel, unanimously ruled that the appellants couldn’t prove the allegations of over-voting irregularities, and noncompliance to the electoral act offenses.

Muhammad Bima earlier challenged the landslide victory of the PDP candidate, Sen. Peter Ajiya on grounds of malpractices in some of the polling units and the malfunction of the BVAs machines during the 25th Day of February 2023 General elections.

The appeal court upheld that the election tribunal was right to have confirmed Peter Ajiya who have scored the majority votes cast by dismissing the appeal for lacking in merits.

The appeal court argued that the issues raised in the various petitions pertained to over-voting, noncompliance, and irregularities couldn’t be established at the Election Tribunal.

The Honourable Justices, in dismissing the appeals, that the lower tribunal was right, leading to the dismissal of the petitions by asking parties to bear their cost.