In a judgment delivered virtually on Wednesday, the trial judge, Abdullahi Liman, held among others, that the absence of Mr Abacha’s name on the register of the PDP in Fagge was not enough to disqualify him from contesting the primary election
A Federal High Court in Kano has dismissed yet another suit by Jafar Bello challenging the nomination of Mohammed Abacha as the Kano State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Bello, a governorship aspirant, who is the main challenger to Mr Abacha in the governorship primary of the PDP in Kano, in May, had, in the suit marked: FHC/KN/CS/186/2022 sought the nullification of his (Abacha) nomination.
He had claimed among others that Mr Abacha’s name was not on the membership register of the PDP in Fagge Ward, Fagge Local Government Area where Mr Abacha hails from, thus, according to him, he was not qualified to have contested the primary election.
In a judgment delivered virtually on Wednesday, the trial judge, Abdullahi Liman, held among others, that the absence of Mr Abacha’s name on the register of the PDP in Fagge was not enough to disqualify him from contesting the primary election.
The court upheld the arguments by Mr Abacha’s counsel, Reuben Atabo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), that the PDP membership card issued to Abacha and the waiver granted him by the party were sufficient to qualify him for the primary election.
The judge further held that having polled the highest number of valid votes cast at the primary election, he (Mr Abacha) was the actual winner and the authentic candidate of the party.
Apart from Mr Abacha, Mr Bello had listed the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Sadiq Wali, as defendants in the suit.
Mr Wali had also lost to Mr Abacha at the Federal High Court in Kano.
The latest judgement in favour of Mr Abacha comes barely a week after the same Federal High Court declared him as the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP in Kano State.
Initially, the IndependentNationalElectoralCommission (INEC) published the name of Mr Wali, the son of Nigeria’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aminu Wali, as the PDP governorship candidate.
Mr Abacha who is the son of the late military Head of State, Sani Abacha, challenged Mr Wali in court and won.
