Supreme Court rules on Jigawa APC guber ticket tomorrow as A’Court upholds Kaduna’s

The Supreme Court will, tomorrow, lay to rest the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket tussle in Jigawa State. A five-member panel, led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, yesterday, fixed date for the judgment after taking arguments from parties in the appeal filed by former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Farouk Adamu Aliyu and the cross appeal by sitting deputy governor, Umar Namadi.

Through his counsel, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi (SAN), Namadi had won the legal battles at the Federal High Court, Dutse and Court of Appeal in Kano.

But Aliyu is, by his appeal marked: SC/1453/2022, challenging the November 4, 2022 judgment of the Kano division of the appellate court, dismissed his earlier appeal and upheld Namadi’s election as governorship candidate of the ruling party in the state.

A three-member panel, presided over by Justice Ita Mbaba, in their ruling, unanimously dismissed Aliyu’s appeal against the September 13, 2022 judgment by Justice Hassan Dikko of the Federal High Court, Dutse, for lacking in merit.

Justice Dikko had, in the judgment, held among others, that Aliyu lacked the locus standi to sue and added that he failed to prove his case with credible evidence.

However, in the cross appeal filed by Fagbemi, Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment which upturned the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked the locus standi to have filed the suit, which did not qualify as a pre-election case.

Adopting his client’s brief, Fagbemi urged the apex court to dismiss the Aliyu’s appeal and allow Namadi’s cross appeal. The senior argued that the appellate court was wrong to have exercised jurisdiction over Aliyu’s appeal, which arose “from an action improperly constituted.”
 
Counsel to Aliyu, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), disputed, praying the court to allow his client’s appeal.

ALSO, the Court of Appeal in Kaduna State, yesterday, dismissed an appeal brought against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC and its governorship candidate, Uba Sani, by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
 
Legal representative for Kaduna APC, Sule Shu’aibu, in a statement said: “It is my pleasure to report once again that the appeal No. CA/K/293/2022 by the NNPP Vs. INEC & the APC before the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, seeking to disqualify our gubernatorial candidate and all 34 candidates for the State House of Assembly in the forthcoming general elections, has just been dismissed.
 
“Details in (due) course of time. While congratulating all of us, I wish to place on record our gratitude to you all for your continued prayers and support to the legal team.
 
“It would be recalled that following the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, which ruled that the case filed by NNPP and its governorship candidate, Sen. Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, against INEC for listing Sen. Uba Sani as governorship candidate of APC and 34 candidates for Kaduna State constituencies is status barred, the party and its gubernatorial candidate had challenged the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
 
“NNPP and its governorship candidate averred in their suit that the APC, as a party, did not conduct a valid ward congress that produced delegates that participated in the primaries that produced the gubernatorial candidate and state House of Assembly candidates and should not have been listed as such for the 2023 general elections.”