Tribunal Sacks House of Assembly Speaker

…..The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Gombe State, on Tuesday, nullified the victory of the incumbent Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abubakar Luggerewo of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.

Luggerewo represents Akko central in the House of Assembly.

Bashir Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had dragged Luggerewo and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the tribunal over the cancellation of results in polling units 001, 024 and 014 in Kumo East which allegedly gave APC an edge.

Luggerewo was recently announced as the Zonal Vice Chairman, North-East of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria and Chairman of the North-East Speakers Forum.

Justice Michael Ugar, in his ruling held that the cancellation of the polling units 001, 024 and 014 of Kumo units by the Independent National Electoral Commission were in error.

The tribunal while passing judgement said, “a rerun within the next 30 days of judgement in Kumo East 018 to ascertain the actual winner between Luggerewo of the All Progressive Congress and Bashir Abdullahi, of the Peoples Democratic Party.” In a telephone interview with Punch Newspapers, Luggerewo who sounded unruffled, assured that the party would appeal the judgement. When asked if he followed the tribunal’s ruling he said, “I was not at the court but I was briefed.”

On the next move, Luggerewo said, “The next line of action is we are going to appeal.”