The Election Petition Court in Kaduna has fixed July 16, for Sen. Lawal Adamu-Usman and the PDP to open defence of the petition filed by the APC challenging his election.The court fixed the date on Tuesday after taking submissions of witnesses and documents presented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the election.
The APC is challenging the election of the PDP senator, on the grounds that he did not attend some schools he claimed in his INEC nomination form.
Mr Johnson Usman, counsel to Muhammad-Sani Abdullahi, the APC candidate, told journalists after the sitting of the Election Petition Court in Kaduna, that the three witnesses presented documents that Adamu-Usman did not attend the schools.
He said that the schools included Aminu Shehu College of Advance Studies and Great Diamond School.
“Aminu Shehu College of Education said his name is not there at all.
“Particularly the letter written by Demonstration Primary School Gwagwalada as well as Government Day Secondary School Gwagwalada to the effect that Lawal Adamu-Usman was not a student there,” he said.
However, the PDP counsel, Mohammed Magaji SAN, told journalists that the schools being claimed by the APC were strange and not known to them, saying they will respond appropriately when they open their defence.
At its last sitting on June 24, three subpoenaed witnesses had testified on the validity of Adamu-Usman’s school certificates.
The witnesses were from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, INEC and NECO.
The witnesses had told the court presided by Justice HH Kereng, that the academic credentials presented by the Senator representing Kaduna North were valid.
Also, an official of INEC who testified, presented evidence that Adamu-Usman who contested on the platform of the PDP was validly nominated and the election was free and fair.
The court had subpoenaed the three institutions to appear before it in respect of the case filed by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its senatorial candidate.
In his testimony, Ishaq Abubakar, an Associate Professor of Law from ABU, told the court that the respondent, Adamu-Usman obtained Diploma and Degree in Public Administration from the university.
He tendered necessary documents which were admitted as evidence by the court.
Also, the second witness, Esther Bala-Wuyaa, Director Special Duties, National Examination Council (NECO), confirmed that the respondent sat for and obtained the result of the examination conducted by NECO in 2011.
She tendered the respondent’s Senior Secondary Certificate Examination result before the court which was admitted in evidence.
Counsel to the senator, MA Mahmoud Sani SAN, had asked the court to discountenance the testimony of the representative of Demonstration Primary School, Zaria as his client had never claimed to have attended the school.
He told the court that Adamu-Usman attended Diamond Academy, Zaria and Amir Abdulkarim Tahfizul Qur’an, also in Zaria.
The counsel added that his client subsequently obtained the Senior Arabic and Islamic Secondary School Certificate (SAISSC) issued by the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies, adding that the result was gazetted in 2015.
Sani further told the court that the respondent was enrolled into the Demonstration Primary School, Gwagwalada, Abuja, in 1986, by the late Emir of Jere, bearing the name Lawal Abdullahi Jere.
He added that his client swore to an affidavit on Jan. 3, 2003, changing his name to Lawal Adamu-Usman.
Also in her testimony, Fatima Umar-Jalingo of the Legal Department, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said that the only PDP candidate known to INEC is Lawal Adamu Usman as adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
The witness tendered a copy of the Supreme Court judgment before the court and was accepted in evidence.
She went further to tender the results of the 3,356 polling units in the senatorial district, where she affirmed that there was no record of over voting as claimed by the petitioners.
The three-man panel led by Justice H.H Kereng has adjourned the case till July 16. (NAN)
