The federal high court sitting in Jalingo, on Tuesday nullified the All Progressives Congress governorship primary election which saw the emergence of Senator Emmanuel Bwacha as the party governorship candidate.
The court also ordered the All Progress Congress to conduct fresh gubernatorial primaries within 14 days.
The federal high court in Jalingo has faulted the process that ushered in its gubernatorial candidate.
The fall out of the gubernatorial primaries forced David Sabo Kente, to approach the court for redress, having exhausted the party mechanism to address his grievances
The contention was that there was no primary election in the state.
In his judgment, the high court judge, Justice Simone Amobeda, urged Bwacha to desist from parading himself as the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
He also directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to, as a matter of urgency, withdraw the certificate of return earlier issued out to senator Bwacha and to as well cease from recognizing him as the party’s guber candidate.
He directed the party to go ahead and conduct fresh governorship primaries in the state within fourteen days from the day of the judgment.
He emphasised that the 2022 electoral act, must be strictly adhered to In the fresh primaries
The judge who went ahead to stress that the evidence presented before him indicated that “there was no APC governorship primary in the state” said “there was no evidence to show that due process was followed.”
The defendant, as made known by him “could not ensure that there was a primary election in the state” stating that “one hand writing appeared in more than one of the result sheets.”
The judge ruled that the nomination of the party’s candidate in the said primary was “not valid” and ordered the party to provide a level playing ground for all the aspirants that would be jostling for the governorship ticket of the party.
The coordinator of David Kente gubernatorial campaign organiser commended the judiciary for the judgement.
The counsels to APC and the party candidate, Festus Kayode Idepefor and Ibrahim Effiong said they will reach out to their principals before deciding the next action to be taken.
The events watchers are looking out for the next step APC will take before the expiration of the 14 days window given by the court.
