11th January, 2023
By Ebere Agozie
The Supreme Court is to deliver judgment on Friday in the legal battle on the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jigawa.
A five-member panel of Justices led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun fixed the date for judgment after taking arguments from parties in the appeal filed by Farouk Adamu Aliyu former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and the cross-appeal by Umar Namadi the current Deputy Governor of the state.
Umar Namadi through his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, had won the legal battle at the Federal High Court in Dutse as well as at the Court of Appeal in Kano.
But Aliyu is by his appeal marked SC/1453/2022 challenging the Nov.4, 2022 judgment by the Court of Appeal (Kano division) which dismissed his earlier appeal and upheld Namadi’s election as the governorship candidate of the APC in Jigawa State.
A three-member panel presided over by Justice Ita Mbaba, in the Nov. 4 judgment, unanimously dismissed Aliyu’s appeal against the Sept. 13, 2022 judgement by Justice Hassan Dikko of the Federal High Court, Dutse, for lacking in merit.
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 Lateef Fagbemi SAN, Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment which upturned the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked locus standi to have filed the suit which did not qualify as a pre-election case.
Adopting his client’s brief on Wednesday, the lawyer to Namadi, Fagbemi urged the Apex Court to dismiss the appeal by Aliyu and allow his client’s cross-appeal.
Fagbemi argued that the Appeal Court was wrong to have exercised jurisdiction over Aliyu’s appeal, which arose “from an action improperly constituted.”.
Lawyer to Aliyu, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) argued otherwise and prayed the court to allow his client’s appeal.
(NAN)