The Court of Appeal, Abuja
Division, on Thursday, dismissed the appeal case filed by Sen. Umaru Dahiru,
challenging the emergence of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as governor of Sokoto State.
The Court had earlier in the
month reserved judgment in the suit filed on account of, “non-compliance with
laws in the conduct of the primary election” that produced Tambuwal in 2014 as
the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC.”
The appeal was filed by Umaru
Dahiru and Aliyu Sanyinna, aspirants in the December 4, 2014, APC governorship
primary election.
Respondents in the appeal are the
APC, Tambuwal and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Justice Abubakr Yahaya who
presided over two other justices of the appellate court reserved the verdict of
the court after counsel in the suit made their final brief of arguments to back
up their respective reliefs sought at the court.
Counsel to the appellants Roland
Otaru, while making his final submissions asked the appeal court to remove
Tambuwal as governor on the ground that he was not lawfully and validly elected
as the APC gubernatorial candidate for the 2015 governorship elections.
He submitted that the APC
constitution, primary election guidelines and the Electoral Act were grossly
violated during the conduct of the December 2014 primary election.
The senior counsel argued that
the disregard for the observance of due process got to the climax with the
alleged swapping of the delegate’s list by the governor to circumvent the rules
provided for the conduct of the primary by the national secretariat of the APC.
Mr. Otaru informed the panel of
justices that the two appellants attached the authentic delegates to their originating
summon to confirm that none of the names on the list was ticked to establish
accreditation of delegates for conduct of the primary election.
He added that the failure of the
respondents to produce the list of accredited delegates to rebut the claims of
the appellants was fatal to the case of the respondents.
He then urged the appellate court
to set aside the judgment of Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court
which on June 22, 2017 upheld the primary election.
Otaru claimed that the judge
erred in law and engaged in mis-carriage of justice by going out of the counter
claims of the respondents to arrive at his conclusion.
Specifically, the senior lawyer
canvassed that the principal appellant, Umaru Dahiru, be declared the candidate
of the APC in the 2015 governorship election.
However, the APC, represented by
Jibrin Okutepa, canvassed that the suit be dismissed for being vexatious and
lacking in merit.
He submitted that the appellants
were inconsistent in their pleadings having allegedly claimed that there was no
primary election conducted and in another averment established that not all the
authentic delegates were accredited for the primary election.
Besides, Okutepa claimed that the
appellants changed the character of their case when in the originating summon
they canvassed cancellation of the primary election for a fresh one but came
back to seek that they be declared the winner of the same faulted primary poll.
“From the totality of the case of
the appellants and from the list they submitted on their own, they admitted
that 1620 delegates from the 23 local government areas of the state were
accredited and in their inconsistent claim, came out to allege again that
delegates were not accredited as required by law”.
“In the face of this glaring
inconsistence, the case of the plaintiffs is liable to be dismissed, and I urge
this court to do so and uphold the findings of the High Court on the issue,” he
said.
Also, counsel to Tambuwal,
Ibrahim Ameh, canvassed the dismissal of the suit for lacking in merit.
Ameh claimed that the fulcrum of
the case of the appellants was non-accreditation of delegates adding that they
did not establish their allegation as required by law in court.
The counsel to the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, also supported the
submission for dismissal of the suit.
Justice Yahaya after the adoption
of the arguments by lawyers said that the date for judgment will be
communicated to parties in the suit by the court.
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