The National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano has voided the election of Muktar Umar Yerima of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
In its ruling, the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately cancel the certificate of return previously issued to Yerima.
The case was brought before the panel by Hafizu Kawu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who argued that Yerima was not eligible to contest the poll.
INEC had earlier announced Yerima as the winner of the House of Representatives seat for Tarauni Federal Constituency. But the three-member tribunal, chaired by Justice I.P. Chima, ruled otherwise, stating that Yerima presented a forged primary school certificate.
The panel dismissed Yerima’s explanation of a name change in 2022, noting that his international passports since 2009 carried three different names—Umar Mukhtar Zakari—while the primary school certificate he submitted bore Umar Mukhtar.
To make matters worse, Hausawa Primary School reportedly denied issuing the certificate Yerima presented.
With this, the tribunal declared that the NNPP effectively had no valid candidate in the election.
