The court ruled there were irregularities in five polling units.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the election of the Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Yusuf Liman.

The court, therefore, ordered a rerun in five polling units across the Makera constituency.

The Kaduna State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal had, on 30 September, nullified the victory of Mr Liman and ordered a rerun in 42 polling units.

Mr Liman represents Makera Constituency in the state Assembly.

A petition was filed before the Tribunal by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), candidate, Solomon Katuka, challenging the election of Mr Liman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In his petition, the PDP candidate alleged that there were gross irregularities during the election. He argued that he won the March 18 House of Assembly Election in the Makera constituency and should have been declared the winner.

He argued that there were irregularities in 37 polling units in the Makera ward, two polling units in the Barnawa ward, one polling unit in the Kakuri Gwari ward, one polling unit in the Television ward, and one polling unit in the Kakuri Hausa ward.

The tribunal agreed and ordered rerun elections in the affected wards.

Dissatisfied with the judgement of the Tribunal, Mr Liman and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) filed an appeal against the judgement of the Tribunal.

Channels Television reports that the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal ordered a rerun in only five polling units instead of the 42 ordered by the tribunal.

The court ruled that the 382 margin of victory between Liman and Katuka was less than the number of permanent voter cards collected in the affected polling units.

The APC had scored 17,470 votes and the PDP 17,088 in the March 18 elections.