Aggrieved APC governorship aspirants ask Appeal Court to sack Sokoto Gov

The All Progressives Congress gubernatorial candidates, Umaru Dahiru and Abubakar Sanyinna approached the Court of Appeal after the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed their suit against Tambuwal.

The appellants, through their counsel, Mr. Tunde Falola, filed their notice of appeal against the High Court's judgment on July 6, which was delivered by Justice Gabriel Kolawole on June 23, 2017.

They asked the appeal court to "set aside the decision of the learned trial judge and grant the appellants’ prayers in the originating summons."

In the originating summons filed before the Federal High Court, they asked the court to remove Tambuwal from office on the grounds that the APC primary from which he (Tambuwal) emerged as the party's candidate, was marred by irregularities.

They alleged that delegates who voted during the primary election were not accredited.

Justice Kolawole, however, ruled that plaintiffs failed to prove the alleged irregularities.

But their notice of appeal, they accused Justice Kolawole of failing to properly evaluate the evidence put before the court "as to the accreditation."

The appellants, therefore, described the judgment as a "miscarriage of justice."

"The appellants, by affidavit and documentary evidence presented before the court particularly paragraphs 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,16, and 17 of the further affidavit of Senator Umaru Dahiru sworn to on April 13, 2017 and Exhibits O and P attached thereto, have substantially demonstrated that no delegate was accredited before the conduct of the said primaries," the plaintiffs argued in one of their grounds for appeal.

They also berated Justice Kolawole for his reliance on the report by the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission on the said primary.

They said, "The learned trial judge erred in law when he heavily relied on Exhibit M which is the purported report by the third respondent (INEC) in coming to a conclusion that there was accreditation of the second respondent (Tambuwal) during the conduct of the purported governorship primaries of the first respondent (APC) held in Sokoto State on December 14, 2014."

"There is nowhere the number of accredited delegates was specifically mentioned to have justified the learned trial judge's findings.

"The mere mention of ‘the party submitted a typed agenda for the primary that started with accreditation of delegates’ without more is not enough for inference of accreditation by the learned trial judge."

They further discredited the judgment for holding that the INEC's report "is sufficient to uphold the said APC’s governorship primaries."

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The complainants insist that there is nothing in the said report "suggestive of any accreditation of delegates at the said primaries held on December 14, 2014 in Sokoto State."

They also condemned the judge for holding that "the appellants’ prayers are not grantable when, in fact, section 87(9) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) makes provision for an aggrieved aspirant to challenge the conduct of nomination of a candidate for an election."