Justice MN Yunusa of the Federal High Court in Kano said in his judgment in the suit filed by Mr Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the INEC, that he was constrained by lack of jurisdiction to make an order for the issuance of Certificate of Return to candidates of the parties that participated in the governorship election in Abia State since they were not parties before the court in the matter.
Mr Ibrahim had, in the suit marked: FHC/KN/CS/107/2023, complained that the primary elections by the Labour Party in Abia and Kano were not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court had ruled that the failure by the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primary elections rendered the process null and void.
According to the Court; “The party that has not complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act cannot be said to have candidates in an election and cannot be declared winner of an election.”
The quick interpretation of this was that the candidature of Alex Otti stood nullified if indeed his nomination did not comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
But the Court was constrained by lack of jurisdiction to issue a consequential order on the issuance of certificate of return to other parties who participated in the poll since they were not parties in the suit before it.
The enrolled judgment order sighted by THE CONCLAVE, signed by the Court Registrar, Muhammad Shehu, and dated May 18, 2023, offered these clarifications which were contrary to initial media reports that the court had nullified Alex Otti’s candidature and all contestants in Abia and Kano States.
The order that has been interpreted as the court’s rejection of the plaintiff’s prayer to the court to nullify the Abia Abia governorship election primary, reads: “The candidates that participated in the election in Abia State are not parties before this court (and) as such the Court lacks the jurisdiction to make an order for the issuance of Certificate of Return to them. They are, however, at liberty to seek the said redress in the appropriate Division of the Court.”
THE CONCLAVE understands that making such an order without jurisdiction would amount to a perverse judgment and one which was made in vacuo without parties to benefit from such order (issuance of certificate of return).
In a swift riposte to the news if the judgement purportedly nullifying his nomination and therefore his candidature, Dr. Alex Otti, governor-elect of Abia State, had encouraged people of the state not to panic over his purported sack by a Federal High Court in Kano.
Otti had noted that there was no cause for alarm over the kangaroo judgment.
Otti, who spoke with Vanguard in Abia, had said arrangements for his swearing- in on May 29 were in full gear, declaring that the antics of the enemies of democracy could not truncate the will of Abians.
Recall that, on Thursday, a Federal High Court in Kano, presided over by Justice M. N. Yunusa, reportedly nullified the candidature of Otti, the Abia State Governor-elect, and all the candidates of the Labour Party in Abia and Kano States.
The court had ruled that their emergence was not in compliance with the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act.
The Court in Suit No FHC/KN/CS/107/2023 filed by Mr Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim against the Labour Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ruled that the failure of the Labour Party to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before their primaries renders the process invalid.“
The party that had not complied with the provisions of the electoral act could not be said to have a candidate in an election and could not be declared winner of an election; this being so, the votes credited to the 1st defendant weres wasted votes, the Judge had purportedly ruled.
Meanwhile, reacting to the development, Festus Ogun, a human rights lawyer, noted that no court can nullify the candidacy of a person duly elected into office on the ground that he was not validly nominated.
He said, “No court can nullify the candidacy of a person duly elected on the ground that he was not validly nominated, after election.
“Once an election has been conducted, the issue of nomination pending in any court becomes academic and any order arising therefrom will be in vain.
“Should you fail to successfully challenge the nomination of a candidate before the conducted of election, it becomes “otilo”, otiose and academic after the conduct of the election.
“In fact, save for qualification issues, you cannot raise it at the Tribunal.”
On Wednesday, the Labour Party had accused a “breakaway group” of the party led by acting National Chairman Lamidi Apapa of approaching a court in Kano State to seek the nullification of the party’s recent electoral victories.
The LP’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, who raised the alarm in a statement, said “The Labour Party has been informed of an illegal attempt by a breakaway group in the party led by Lamidi Apapa to misguide a Kano state High court to invalidate all the elections won by the Labour Party in the just concluded general election.”
The party spokesperson alleged that “the suspended National Legal Adviser and a key member of the disgraced Apapa group, Samuel Akingbade Oyelekan, on Wednesday while the Presidential Appeal Tribunal was sitting in Abuja with all attentions focused on it, clandestinely sneaked out of Abuja to Kano state where he in collaboration with some members of the other political parties asked the court to invalidate all the elections won by the Labour Party, particularly, the national assembly in the 36 states and FCT on the ground that we didn’t submit register of voters to INEC.”
He added that Akingbade, who presented himself as representing the Labour Party, did not oppose the motion, thus forcing the helpless judge to reserve judgement for Thursday, (yesterday).
Ifoh went on to ask the judiciary and all law enforcement agencies, including the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, to note that Akingbade and loyalists of Apapa’s had ceased to represent the party.(Additional report by WitnessNgr)
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