Appeal Court returns Sambo as Kaduna governor

The Court of Appeal, KadunaDivision, on Friday upheld the election of Alhaji Namadi Sambo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as _Governor of Kaduna State in the 2007 general elections. In its lead judgement read by Justice Abdul Aboki, the five-man panel headed by Justice Zainab Bulkachulwa, dismissed the appeals of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) governorship candidate, Sani Sha'aban, on the grounds of jurisdiction.

The first application was an interlocultory appeal that challenged the refusal of the lower tribunal to accept the mass of documentary evidence tendered by the appellant's counsel, Mike Ahamba (SAN).

The applicant also sought the intervention of the appelate court in determining whether the said documents had probative value or not. However, in their briefs opposing the interlocutory application, first respondents counsel, Emmanuel Toro(SAN), averred that the appellants failed to prove extreme circumstances as required by the law in warranting the acceptance of documents.

Toro also argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the appeal since the applicant failed to comply with the provisions of the law and cited Section 246 of the Electoral Act to back his arguments.

The court subsequently held that since the petition was filed at the lower court out of time, there can be no appeal against the judgement of the lower tribunal and struck out the appeal for lack of merit.