Court stops APC from contesting two Yobe Assembly seats

to both parties, Justice Aminu declared that: “APC indeed failed to comply with the provisions of guideline in the conduct of primary elections as provided in the Electoral Act [and] thus cannot sponsor candidates for the two-state assembly seats”.

She added that the implication of this misconduct is for the court to invoke the provision of Section 84 (13) of the Electoral Act 2022 which reads, “where a political party fails to comply with the provision of this Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidature for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in it”.” She said further: “This court having been fortified by the above provision of the law and the recent Supreme Court decision of Hon. Nnamdi Ezeanyi and Hon. Jones Onyerere supra in conjunction with the earlier cited judicial and statutory authorities hereby toe the same line and pursuant to the provision of Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, this Honorable Court holds that since the time allowed by Electoral Act 2022 for the conduct of primaries and submission of candidates to political parties by INEC has elapsed, the APC shall not field candidate for the seat of Ngalda/ Fika Constituency of Assembly House of Assembly for the 2023 General election.”

She concluded thus: “This matter is hereby dismissed and each party bears its own cost. This is my decision. This shall be the judgement of this court.”

Similarly, the same provisions of the law were applied to the case of Goya-Ngeji House of Assembly Constituency.

Reacting to the development, counsels to the plaintiffs in both cases, lauded the judgement and thanked the judge for her judgement.