Federal High Court sitting in Yola, Adamawa state has nullified the governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced Senator Aihatu Dahiru Binani as the governorship candidate of the party.
Justice Abdul-aziz Anka on Friday declared as null and void the election conducted on May 26, 2022 by the APC and accordingly annulled the purported victory of Binani as the winner of the election.
During the primary election, Binani polled 430 votes to defeat her closest contender, Nuhu Ribadu, who scored 280 votes, as reported by SaharaReporters on May 27, 2022.
Justice Anka held that 51 (1 to 4) of the Electoral Act was violated seeing there was ‘overvoting’ during the May 27, 2022 declaration of the results of the APC governorship primary election in Adamawa state.
He held that 50 delegates from Lamurde Local Government Area who ought not to have voted during the primary election were allowed to vote. He held that there was no evidence that the party had conducted a Special Adhoc Delegates election there.
Ribadu had challenged the emergence of Binani in a suit filed on June 9, 2022, claiming that 1,009 delegates were accredited, contrary to the outcome which indicated that a total of 1,011 votes were cast.
The former anti-corruption boss, accordingly urged the court to nullify the election and order a fresh conduct of another governorship primary.
“It is in the interest of our nation that political parties should adhere to internal democracy rules,” Justice Anka quoted a Supreme Court decision.
He accordingly declared that APC cannot field any candidate in the 2023 election.
