Supreme Court has nullified the participation of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the senatorial poll of February 25.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice John Inyang Okoro on Thursday in Abuja, the court rejected the APC’s request and insisted that the party did not follow due process in the conduct of the primary election.
The court ruled that the APC’s candidate, Joshua Lidani was not been nominated through a legitimate party primary election, hence, held that the party sabotaged democracy in the exercise.
Similarly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitoring team, reported that no primary election was conducted at the it left the venue due to threat to lives.but only heard that figures were allocated to all aspirants later.
APC had earlier made efforts to convince the courts, by appeals, but the apex court upheld the rulings of both the federal high vourt and the court of appeal to the effect that the party did not comply with laws in the conduct of the purported primary election.
Justice Okoro maintained that the primary election must be conducted in accordance with the laws, regulations and guidelines of political parties.
“It is crystal clear that the appellant (APC) did not do well in the instant case and the implication is that the party has no candidate in the last Senatorial election in the Gombe South Senatorial District. If they won the Senatorial election, too bad for it because it has no lawful candidate and if it lost in the election, the better for it”, the court held.
WikkiTimes recalls that INEC Returning Officer for Gombe South Senatorial District, Professor Saleh Abdu Anthony Siyako declared the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner for the seat having polled 97,956 votes, defeating APC’s Lidani who polled 36,879 votes.
