The Appeal Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed the petition by the former governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, of the All Progressives Congress, and affirmed Jarigbe Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Cross River North Senatorial District election.
Delivering the five-hour judgement on Saturday, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice M. A. Sambo, held that both Mr Ayade and the APC failed to prove their case.
Mr Sambo added that no evidence tendered before the court proved that the elections were marred with malpractices.
The court, therefore, awarded N500,000 against the former governor in favour of the incumbent senator.
Mr Ayade, a former governor who was in the Senate between 2011 and 2015, lost the February election to the incumbent senator, Mr Jarigbe.
Mr Ayade scored 56,595 votes against Mr Jarigbe, who scored 76,145 votes.
Recall that the Cross River State National Assembly election petitions tribunal sitting in Calabar had, in September, declared Mr Jarigbe as the winner of the February 25 senatorial district elections and dismissed Mr Ayade’s petition for lack of merit.
