Inec voids election of House of Reps majority leader saying he was declared winner under duress

MAJORITY leader in Nigeria's House of Representatives Hon Alhassan Doguwa is facing additional woes on top of his recent arrest after the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) voided his recent election in Kano State.

Last Wednesday, the Kano State Police Command arraigned Hon Doguwa before a magistrate court over an alleged of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide and causing grievous hurt on innocent person during elections on February 25. A candidate in those polls, Hon Doguwa was standing as the candidate for the Doguwa/Tudunwada Federal Constituency and had been declared the winner by Inec.

He was arrested shortly after voting was concluded, however, with the Kano State Police Command saying it received complaints over the gruesome murder of three persons and causing grievous injury to eight others in Tudunwada Local Government Area on Sunday February 26  while the collation of election results was ongoing. After refusing a police invitation to come and answer questions about his role in the affair, Hon Doguwa was arrested by detectives at the Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano.

Now, to add to his woes, Inec has  stated that the declaration of results done at Doguwa/Tundunwada Federal Constituency was done under duress. It has thus voided the election of Hon Doguwa as the duly elected lawmaker to represent the constituency in the National Assembly.

Section 65 of Nigeria's Electoral Act gives the commission the power to void results declared under duress. On Monday, when Hon Giguwa's case was heard on court, the presiding judge, Justice Yunusa Muhammad, granted his bail application for a sum of N500m ($1.08m).