Senate Swears In Yohanna To Replace Abbo As Adamawa North Senator

The Nigerian Senate has sworn in Amos Yohanna of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Senator to represent Adamawa North Senatorial District.

Yohanna replaces Senator Elisha Abbo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was recently sacked from the Red Chamber by the Appeal Court, CityNews reports.

The Clerk to the Senate, Chinedu Akubueze, administered the oath of office and oath of allegiance on Yohanna at the directive of the Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the plenary.

Recall that on February 27, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Abbo as the winner with 71,927 votes defeating PDP’s Yohanna, who scored 61,895 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, the PDP and Yohanna approached the tribunal and dragged Abbo and INEC before the tribunal challenging the outcome of the election, which brought him back to the Senate.

In his petition marked, EPT/AD/SEN/02/2023, Yohanna, alleged that the election of Senator Abbo was invalid by reasons of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

He averred that Senator Abbo was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast during the election, alleging overvoting at various polling units, false entries, alteration and cancellation of votes at several polling units.

However, in its ruling, the tribunal dismissed the petition and awarded damages, asking the petitioner to pay N600,000 to Abbo.

Dissatisfied, Yohanna headed to the Court of Appeal, which is the final Court for National Assembly Petitions which has ruled in his favour.