Appeal court restores ruling party governor

A Nigerian appeals court has quashed a lower court judgement that nullified the election of a state governor from the ruling party, saying there was inadequate evidence to prove opposition allegations of vote rigging.

Announcing the unanimous decision of a panel of five appeal court judges sitting in the central city of Jos, Justice Pius Aderemi said on Monday they were overruling an electoral tribunal judgement which had voided the election of Boni Haruna as governor of Adamawa State in eastern Nigeria.

“I say without any doubt in my mind that the totality of the evidence placed before the lower tribunal is absolutely inadequate,” Aderemi said.

The appeal court ruling boosts the position of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his People's Democratic Party, which swept back into power for a second term in last year's elections.

Obasanjo has been widely accused of allowing the PDP to rig last year's presidential parliamentary elections and simultaneous elections for the governors and legislatures of Nigeria's 36 states. Opposition parties have taken several cases of alleged fraud to the courts.

The opposition All Nigeria People's Party had challenged Haruna's election in Adamawa state, alleging that ballot boxes had been illegally stuffed and results had been altered during the April 2003 poll.

On March 25 this year, an electoral tribunal upheld these claims. It cancelled the election results in 14 of the 21 local government councils in Adamawa state and ordered a fresh round of voting.

Among the councils affected by the controversy was Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s home district, Jada. One witness told the elections tribunal that results there had been altered by a top electoral official.

Local election monitors and international observers, including representatives of the European Union and the U.S. State Department, concurred that last year's elections had been tainted by voting irregularities and violence.