31st December, 2015
Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Senator Aisha Al-Hassan, the candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC in the April 11 Taraba State gubernatorial elections will approach the Supreme Court to test the validity of Thursday’s Court of Appeal judgment which nullified the 7 November decision of the state’s Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which declared her the winner of the poll.
The five man panel of the court of appeal in a judgment read by Justice Abdul Aboki, held that the decision of the tribunal was a nullity.
An election tribunal had in its 11 November judgment nullified the victory of Governor Darius Ishaku over claims that the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which produced him was faulty and as such, ruled that he was not sponsored by PDP or any political party as demanded by law.
It therefore declared Senator Jummai Alhassan, the present minister of Women Affairs, who was the candidate of APC, winner of the election.
But the Governor appealed against the judgment of the tribunal. While ruling on the appeal today, the appellate court said the tribunal erred when it ruled that Ishaku was not validly nominated by his party and not qualified ab-initio to contest the April 11 governorship election.
The court added that the Tribunal has no power to annul the victory of the appellant on the ground of improper conduct of primaries by his party.
Justice Aboki added in the judgment that the since the PDP has admitted to have sponsored the appellant in its deposition, the argument of the APC and its candidate of non-qualification of the PDP candidate are baseless. Appeal Court also held that it is only INEC and any aggrieved contestant in the primaries of PDP who had the locus standi to challenge the conduct of the primaries.
However, Mahmud (SAN), Counsel to Al-Hassan told journalists that the decision of the appeal court will be tested at the Supreme Court. “We are going to test the veracity of the judgment at the Supreme Court so that we can expand the jurisprudence of election petition.
“I am particularly gladdened by the pronouncement of the Justices on the position of card readers, whether or not they are important innovations in elections.
“The court has agreed with us that it is an important innovation and that it can be used to prove over voting.
“Their Lordship have gone through our various briefs and they have come up with their own position of the law and we feel that there is room for us to move ahead to Supreme Court. We are prepared to do that.
“Our position still remained that he (Governor Ishaku) was not validly sponsored as required by section 177 (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that we want to test again in Supreme Court.
However, Kanu Agabi, the lead Counsel to Governor Ishaku commended Appeal Court over the judgment.
“All I can say is that I am grateful to Court of Appeal for this judgment and I am grateful to God. I commend the system of the Court of Appeal.
“It shows you can come here when you are aggrieved by the judgment of the lower court. He however added that the APC its candidate have right of appeal to the Supreme Court.
“They have a right of appeal and for now, I cannot comment on the value of their appeal. But for now the judgment of the Tribunal was set aside, that means the mistake has been corrected,” said Agabi.