The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the recently conducted senatorial by-election in Niger East senatorial district of Niger State, Mr. David Umaru, has dragged Senator Shem Zagbayi Nuhu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 388 others before the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Minna.

In the petition made available to journalists in Minna yesterday, Umaru prayed the tribunal to declare him the winner of the by-election, having polled majority votes as against the PDP candidate that was declared winner by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He also appealed to the tribunal to cancel the results from no fewer than 378 polling units in the nine local government areas where the by-election took place for electoral malpractices and irregularities.

Others named as respondents in the petition included the PDP, INEC, the state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner and all the presiding officers of the commission who participated in the conduct of the by-election.
The petitioners are also seeking the order of the tribunal to cancel and deduct the votes scored by all parties in the affected polling units from the final results recorded by INEC to determine the rightful winner of the by-election.

“That if the results of the polling units affected by these non-compliance and irregularities are cancelled and deducted from the final scores of the candidates, I shall emerge with the highest number of valid votes cast at the election.
“That if the result of the above stated polling units that were affected by non-compliances are cancelled and deducted, I shall emerge with the highest number of valid votes cast thus; APC 87405-22491 = 64,914  PDP 92056-53837 = 38,219,” he said.
The PDP candidate, according to results released by INEC, scored 92,056 while the APC candidate got 87,406 votes but Umaru is asking the tribunal to deduct 22,491 votes from APC results and 53,837 votes from that of PDP in determining the lawful winner of the senatorial by-election
The petitioners are also praying the tribunal to declare null and void INEC’s declaration of Zagbayi and his party as winner of the senatorial by-election conducted on August 30 and September 6 because he did not secure majority of the lawful votes and that he was not qualified to contest the election having not been properly sponsored by his party (PDP) in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.

Click here to read from source.