Rep. Mukthar Umar-Zakari (NNPP-Kano) has vowed to appeal the Election Petition Tribunal’s decision to invalidate his election due to alleged certificate fraud.
This was said in a statement released on Tuesday in Abuja by Umar-Zakari, who represented the Tarauni Federal Constituency in the National Assembly.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the tribunal ruled Hafizu Kawu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election on February 26 and declared his victory to be invalid.
He was declared unable to run for office by the tribunal’s three-person panel, which was chaired by Justice I.P. Chima.
Umar-Zakari, however, asserted that the errors in his credentials were brought about by a legal name change and denied presenting fraudulent paperwork to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for election.
To clear up any confusion and correct the record, I was born Muktar Umar, attended Hausawa Primary School, and received my diploma under that name.
As it is in all of my academic credentials from primary, intermediate, and tertiary universities, which are available for verification.
“However, in order to link my two identities to the family, I added Zakari to my name and changed to Mukthar Umar-Zakari after following all legal and constitutional requirements regarding the name change.
“These are: swearing an affidavit; newspaper publication; gazetted the name as necessary and obtained; deed poll,” he stated.
According to Umar-Zakari, the name change was finalised well in advance of the general election of 2023.
“Having secured the aforementioned documents, I can now fill out Form CF001 and utilise my privilege to add Zakari in my name when running for office in the House of Representatives without worry.
“I am supported by the law and by documents that were received from the appropriate court.
“However, despite all of these, the court charged me of forgery; this decision effectively denies me the right to a fair hearing. Forgery of what? is still a common question posed by commentators, he said.
Umar-Zakari promised to uphold the law and declared he would appeal the tribunal’s decision.
“As law-abiding citizens who uphold the values of justice and the rule of law, I will keep seeking justice and fair play to regain the mandate granted to me by the honourable residents of Tarauni Federal Constituency before the Appeal Court.
In the interests of peace, stability, the rule of law, and constitutional democracy, he continued, “I do hope the Appeal Court will use the discretion granted to them by the constitution of the Federation of Nigeria to review the judgement passed by the honourable justice of the tribunal.”
