By Ken Afor
Honourable Muktar Yarima, a candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), elected member representing Tarauni Federal Constituency, has been ordered to vacate his seat by the National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in Kano State.
According to the judgment delivered by the tribunal, Thursday, it was discovered that the primary school certificate submitted by Hon. Yarima to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as part of the required documents for his qualifications, was forged.
It would be recalled that during the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections, INEC declared Yarima winner of the Tarauni Federal Constituency poll after securing 26,273 votes to defeat Hafizu Kawu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 15,931 votes.
Hon. Yarima’s election was challenged by Kawu in his petition filed questioning the authenticity of the former’s school certificate tendered to INEC.
Kawu also told the tribunal in his petition that the election was marred with irregularities, including over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The tribunal ruled that Hon. Yarima was guilty of certificate forgery and that his party, NNPP did not have a candidate in the election, hence, all votes cast for Yerima were invalid.
Therefore, the electoral umpire was ordered to withdraw the certificate of return given to Yarima.
