29th March, 2023
By Ebere Agozie
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a suit filed against Sen. Elisha Abbo challenging his election as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Adamawa North Senatorial District in the last National Assembly election.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of justices, Justice Inyang Okoro dismissed the claim for lack of merit.
One Abdullahi Suleiman had taken the senator to court, challenging his election in the APC’s primary poll for the Adamawa North Senatorial District.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that Suleiman lacked standing to challenge the election’s result because he did not vote in it.
As a result, the appellant withdrew the case, which was later dismissed by the Supreme Court.
Abbo of the APC won the March 25 senatorial race with 71,927 votes, while Rev. Yohanna Amos of the PDP came in second with 61,895 votes, returning to the Red Chamber.
Abbo had a bumpy road to victory; he was in court before the election battling to overturn an expulsion from the APC imposed on him by his Mubi North party executives after waging a verbal war against the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
A Yola High Court presided over by Justice Mohammed Danladi dismissed Abbo as the APC senatorial candidate for Adamawa North senatorial zone for the March 25 poll.
The judge fired him because his ward in Mubi expelled him from the party.
However, the appellate court overturned the State High Court’s decision, which upheld his expulsion from the ruling party, as previously stated by the party’s leadership.
The court ruled that the trial court lacked authority to hear the case and that Abbo is a registered APC member who is eligible to run for re-election to the Senate on the party’s ticket.
NAN