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Nigerian court sacks governor
11/10/2007 16:17 - (SA)
Lagos - A Nigerian electoral court had annulled the election of the governor of the central Kogi State after a complaint by his opponent that he had been unfairly excluded from the April vote.
The court late on Wednesday ruled in favour of opposition candidate Abubakar Audu's contention that governor Ibrahim Idris from the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) should not have been declared winner.
Audu contended the vote was illegal because his own name and photograph were cancelled out with red ink in the ballot papers as the national poll commission decided that he could not contest as he was facing a graft investigation.
The court in the Kogi capital of Lokoja ruled that the decision by the poll commission was illegal.
Idris became the first governor to be removed since May after the new government of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua took over from Olusegun Obasanjo, who stepped down after eight years.
Many aggrieved candidates were still contesting the results of the April general elections in Nigeria, which had been criticised by the opposition, rights groups, local and foreign observers, including the European Union, as falling short of international standards.
Yar'Adua had set up a committee to reform the country's flawed electoral system.
- AFP
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