Nasarawa South Senatorial Election: Sen. Adokwe Challenges Al-Makura’s Victory At Tribunal

Rabiu Omaku

The incumbent Senator representing Nasarawa South Senatorial zone,the main challenger of governor,Umaru Tanko Al-Makura has dragged the outgoing governor to Election PetitionTribunal challenging his election as the Senate-elect of the zone.

Counsel to Suleiman Adokwe Israel Usman revealed this to Newsmen immediately after filling a petition on behalf of his client on Sunday.

Usman averred that the are challenging the result of the election that declared Al-Makura as the Senate-elect due to electoral fraud that characterised the declaration of the February 23 election.

“The votes of our client in Lafia, Keana, Obi and Doma were illegally cancelled by the Independent National Electoral Commission just to ensure that Al-Makura wins by hook or by crook.

“All the cancellation was illegally therefore we prayed the Tribunal to declare it as such and announce our client as the true winner of the election.

“If all the cancelled results were return, proper collation were done, our client would have the highest votes in the election,” the Counsel added.

He therefore said that if proper collation were done his client would led with more 10, 000 votes.

Similarly, Adokwe said that he would not have challenged the result at the tribunal if  was convinced best on evidence that he won the election.

“This is not the first time they are cancelling my votes to give my opponent advantage over me.

“That was the same thing that happened in 2015 and I reclaimed my mandate at the court,” Adokwe added.

Meanwhile, Bello Mukhtar, Secretary of the Tribunal who confirmed the received of the petition, said that so far the Tribunal has received five petitions from different candidates.

He added that the closing date for submission of any petition is 21 days from the day declaration were made.