Tamale High Court places injunction on the inauguration of assemblyman

Salisu Be-Awuribe who is the lawyer of Fian-naa Nicholas, a contestant on December 19, 2023, District Level Elections speaking to Bole-based Nkilgi FM said the court placed the injunction on the inauguration of Jerkeleh Joseph an Assemblyman for Zongo/ PWD Electoral Area because there was over voting at the St Augustines Poling Station which has not been corrected by the Electoral Commission.

Lawyer Salisu Be-Awuribe said there is no winner for the Sawla Zongo/ PWD Electoral Area until the electoral fraud of overvoting is corrected by the Electoral Commission.

He disclosed that the Electoral Commission in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District has been served the injunction by bailiffs of the Tamale High Court and that the bailiffs are trying to locate Jerkeleh Joseph to serve him the injunction.

Salisu Be-Awuribe added that both the Electoral Commission and Jerkeleh Joseph will be in contempt of the Tamale High Court if he (Jerkeleh Joseph) makes an appearance at the venue for the inauguration of Assembly members in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region.

According to him, his client Fian-naa K. Nicholas has filed an affidavit and demanded the 2023 elections at the St Augustines Polling station results be nullified so that the winner of the Sawla Zongo/PWD electoral area will be declared.

This he said will be based on the three other polling stations or a new election was conducted at the said Polling Station where the electoral fraud occurred.

It would be recalled that Mr. Fian- Naa K. Nicholas a candidate in the 19th December 2024 District Level Elections (DLE) in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah region accused the Electoral Commission (EC) and the NPP in the constituency of conniving to turn the assembly elections held in the District into a partisan election in favour of the NPP.

Fian-Naa Nicholas speaking on the Morning show of Bole-based Nkilgi Fm on January 24, 2024, said he visited the four polling stations assigned by the EC for the Sawla PWD/ Zongo electoral area of which he was a candidate with three other aspiring candidates.

He mentioned the polling stations included St. Augustine primary polling station where he voted, St. Cyprian seminary polling station, and PWD ‘A’ and ‘B’.

According to Fian-Naa Nicholas upon reaching his designated polling station where he voted, he realized that executives of the NPP in the constituency were there and after his observations at the polling center, he told his campaign manager, Seidu Abdul Karim to be vigilant especially since there were initial difficulties in using the Biometric Vendor Machine (BVD).

Fian-Naa Nicholas said after the close of polls he went to the other polling centers to check on the results being collated.

He gave the numbers as St. Augustine Primary School polling station had 73 votes, Ba-eneh Gladys 1, Issahaku Seidu Galbeo 2, and Jerkeleh Joseph 98 with Rejected and spoiled ballots being 12.

He said the total votes cast were 186 but the number of persons verified by the BVD machine was 184.

He furthered that the number of persons manually verified was zero and it was at this point he realized that there was an additional overvoting by two people at that polling station.

The Assemblyman contestant said he and his agent raised concerns to the EC officials that there was an overvoting and subsequently asked for a recount and it was realised that the EC officials couldn’t balance the verified votes to the number of people who voted.

He said the NPP supporters were busily jubilating with known party people like the sacked District Chief Executive (DCE) Hajia Barikisu Losina being around.

According to Fian-Naa Nicholas, he requested the results should be declared null and void per the EC’s laws and a new election to be held later.

He added that even though the EC officials had not declared the results yet, the ballots were moved to the District EC office and he was told to come back the next day for them to resolve the situation.

Fian-Naa Nicholas said he received a video from his friend that the results of the Zongo/ PWD Electoral area had been declared by the EC in Sawla in favour of Jerkeleh Joseph a known NPP member.

He said, he went straight to the EC office and was told by the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District EC officer that he was under pressure to declare the results from powers above him.

Fian-Naa Nicholas said he reminded the officer of the abnormalities and as his agent not sign the pink sheet because they detected that two of the voter forms had no official stamps of the Electoral Commission on them.

Fian-naa Nicholas therefore invited his Lawyer Salisu Be-Awuribe to follow up on the case and after a meeting with the EC officials they assured him that the abnormalities encountered at the St. Augustine primary polling station would be rectified but there was a delay because they had to seek approvals from above which will take a long period.