The court rules that the party cannot field candidates for both seats.
The Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State on Monday ruled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot field candidates for two House of Assembly seats of the state.
The two seats are Ngalda/Fika Constituency and Goya/Ngeji Constituency.
Fadima Aminu, a judge in the court, in October nullified the party's primaries conducted in both constituencies on 26 May, 2022 on the grounds of non-compliance with section 84(13) of the electoral Act 2022 and ordered fresh primaries to be conducted by the party within 14 days as required by law.
In their two separate suits, Musa Alhaji Yusuf V INEC and 2 others with case no FHC/DM/CS/18/2022 and Abdulmumini Hussaini V INEC and 2 others with suite no FHC/DM/CS/19/2022 both re-approached the court alleging that some directives contained in the judgement of October, 2022 were violated by the parties and therefore sought relief of the court to declared the exercise a nullity.
Delivering her judgement which was done via zoom and joined by the counsels to both parties, Mr Aminu declared that APC indeed failed to comply with the provisions of guideline in the conduct of primary elections as provided in the Electoral Act thus cannot sponsor candidates for the two state assembly seats.
"The implication of this misconduct is for this Honorable Court to invoke provision of section 84(13) of the Electoral Act 2022 which reads': "where a political party fails to comply with the provision of this Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidature for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in it," she said.
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"This court having been fortified by the above provision of the law and the recent Supreme Court decision of Hon. Nnamdi Ezeanyi and Hon. Jones Onyerere supra in conjunction in the earlier cited judicial and statutory authorities hereby tow the same line and pursuant to the provision of electoral Act 2022 and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, this Honorable court holds that since the time allowed by Electoral Act 2022 for the conduct of primaries and submission of candidates to political parties by INEC has elapsed, the APC shall not field candidate for seat of NGALDA/Fika Constituency of Assembly House of Assembly for the 2023 General election. This matter is hereby dismissed and each party bears its own cost. This is my decision. This shall be the judgement of this court," the judge declared.
The same provisions of the law were applied to the case of Goya/Ngeji House of Assembly constituency.
Counsels to the plaintiffs in both cases, Shamsuddeen Magaji, lauded the judgement and thanked the judge for her judgement.
