A Niger State High Court, sitting in Minna, the state capital has nullified the election of a former Commissioner of Health and Hospital Services Dr. Mustapha Jibrin Alheri, the Chanchaga Local Government Council’s Chairmanship candidate on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Alheri had been declared winner in the Council elections held last month in the state.
But prelude his swearing-in at the government house Conference Hall in Minna, alongside his other colleagues who had emerged victorious in the Councils elections across the 25 Local Government Areas of the state by the Niger state Independent electoral commission, the Court struck.
The Court presided over by Justice Muhammad Muhammed declared Yusuf Aminu Ladan as the authentic APC candidate for Chanchaga local government Council in the just-concluded council election in the state and therefore the elected person for the position.
Yusuf Aminu Ladan had approached the court where he alleged unlawful substitution of his name after the October 2022 primary election of the ruling Party (APC) in the local government area.
Justice Muhammed after reviewing the claims of Ladan and that of the defendant, Dr Mustapha Jibrin, the APC and the State Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC), he ruled that Dr Jibrin did not participate in the primary election.
He said that his name was unlawfully submitted to the NSIEC by the APC.
The presiding Judge also held that based on the evidence before the court, Dr Mustapha Jibrin was part of the stakeholders from the Chanchaga local government Council who conducted the primary election that produced Ladan as the APC’s consensus candidate.
The court thereby ordered the state electoral umpire to present a certificate of return to Ladan and withdraw that of the former Commissioner, Dr Jibrin
Justice Mohammed also ordered the State Executive Council to swear in Ladan as the chairman of the Chanchaga local government Council of the State.
The State Executive Council had gone ahead to swear in the elected 25 local government councils chairmen including the said Aminu Ladan.
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