The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal challenging the emergence of Umar Namadi as the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Jigawa State for the forthcoming general elections.
The Apex Court in a unanimous judgment Delivered by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa upheld the primary election conducted on May 26 which produced Namadi as the winner.
While delivering Judgment in the appeal filed by Farouk Aliyu, a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the judge held that the appellant failed to prove the declarative reliefs he sought and as such the appeal lacked merit.
Umar Namadi through his counsel, 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 challenging the November 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.
In a cross-appeal filed by Namad, the deputy governor challenged 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.
