A former Nigerian Ambassador to Ukraine and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Pada Kasai, has said there was a technical error in the legal team that stood as counsel to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Northern Senatorial candidate, Eunice Sambo, who lost at the tribunal to the incumbent Senator Jonah David Jang last weekend.

Delivering judgement, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Olanrewaju Akeredolu stated that the petitioners, could not discharge the evidential burden of proof placed upon them by law; hence the failure of the petition in its entirety.

Counsel to the Petitioner, Mr. Sunday Obinde, had wanted the tribunal to declare as invalid the election of Senator Jonah Jang by reason of widespread irregularities. It also awarded a fine of N200,000 against Ayisa for failing to prove her allegations. “Mrs Ayisa Sambo of APC had filed a petition seeking to nullify the return of Jang by INEC as victor of the March 28 Plateau North senatorial polls”. But unfortunately, she had no sufficient evidence to back her wild claim that the results of Jos south and Barkin Ladi local governments were “massively rigged”.

According to him, the election was characterised by massive rigging against the petitioner including over-voting, non-accreditation of voters with the card readers, non compliance with the electoral act and outright fraud, among others.

The tribunal had reserved judgment in the case on August 29 after the adoption of final written addresses of counsels in the matter.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Akeredolu said that the witnesses presented by the petitioners only testified on hearsay, as they were not present at the polling units on the day of the election. He therefore urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition. Jonah Jang of the PDP to the tribunal sitting in Jos, challenging the victory of Sen.