On Thursday evening, several newspapers reported a claim that the Kaduna election tribunal declared the state governorship election inconclusive and ordered a rerun.
The papers reported that the tribunal ruled via Zoom and two of its three judges ordered a supplementary election while one affirmed the victory of Uba Sani, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
Whilst the claims were circulating, Sani issued a statement thanking the tribunal for reaffirming his victory, and commending the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for exploring legal channels for their grievances. The conflicting claims left much to be desired, and for many netizens, it was difficult to arrive at what was true and what was misleading.
CLAIM: Tribunal sacked Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, declared election inconclusive.
The reports claimed that two justices on the panel led by Justice Victor Oviawe ruled the election inconclusive and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days.
VERIFICATION: FIJ contacted sources who were physically present in the court during the tribunal hearing.
“Uba won; two judges declared him winner, but one said it was inconclusive,” one of the sources told FIJ. “We don’t know how other media houses got their stories on a supplementary election. Two judges dismissed the PDP’s case.”
Another source who works with the Kaduna State Government confirmed to FIJ that they attended the tribunal hearing and listened to the court affirm the state governor’s victory.
FIJ also found that The PUNCH had deleted its Twitter post on the story. The story remains on its website though. Baba Aliyu, the PDP counsel, told pressmen after the hearing that the PDP would test the decision at the Appeal Court.
VERDICT: The claim by several newspapers that the tribunal sacked Sani is false.