The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Birnin Kebbi, the Kebbi State capital, yesterday upheld the election of Governor Mohammed Nasir Idris.
It was reported that the panel of judges comprised Justices Ofem Ofem, Dauraba Suleiman-Sikkom and Celestina Dafe.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, General Aminu Bande, had filed a joint suit challenging the election of Idris, as governor in the March 15 election and April 18 rerun on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The petitioners alleged that the deputy governor had submitted a fake secondary school testimonial to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that there was over-voting and that the governor was ineligible to contest the election.
Delivering the judgment, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ofem Ofem said;
“We state categorically that the third respondent did not forge certificate.”
On over-voting, the chairman said of the 59 polling units being questioned, irregularities were discovered in nine, resulting in deduction of 1,735 votes from APC while over 900 votes were deducted from the PDP.
He said the deduction of the votes would not affect the merging between the winner of the election and the runner-up.