The ruling was in a pre-election matter filed by the eldest son of the former Governor of the State, Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, challenging the candidature of Engr. Musa Wada of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16, 2019, governorship election
The ruling was in a pre-election matter filed by the eldest son of the former Governor of the State, Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, challenging the candidature of Engr. Musa Wada of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16, 2019, governorship election.
The four man panel of the Supreme Court lead by Justice Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta, CFR on Friday , June 26, 2020 affirmed Musa Wada as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the November 16, 2019 election in Kogi State.
Engr. Musa Wada who is now challenging the outcome of the Governorship election that produced Yahaya Bello as winner at the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has been engaged in a legal battle against the son of the former Govenor of the State, Abubakar Ibrahim Idris over the authentic candidate of PDP at the election.
Previously, OBSERVERS TIMES reported that Justice Roland Olorunfemi of Kogi State High Court had sacked Wada as a candidate of the PDP on the grounds that the Party did not conduct valid primaries.
The suit was instituted by Wada’s rivals in the Party, led by Abubakar Ibrahim Idris.
The Journey So far:
SUIT No. HCL/38/2019: ABUBAKAR MOHAMMED IBRAHIM V. (1) PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) (2) ENGR. WADA MUSA (3) INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC)
The above captioned suit was filed at the High Court of Justice, Kogi State by Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, an aspirant who contested the PDP primary elections held on 3rd and 4th of September, 2019 to be the flagbearer of the PDP in the November 2019 Kogi State Gubernatorial elections. He claims that during the conduct of the primary elections and while the election was at the stage of sorting of ballots, gunmen numbering about 10 invaded the venue shooting at the venue and disrupting the exercise. He stated that everyone ran for their dear lives, thereby abandoning the ballots and the entire exercise. That at about 2pm on the 4th day of September 2019, he received a notice for the completion of the election exercise at Rock Garden Guest House/Hotel, Lokoja.
That the Committee led by Rt. Hon. Fintiri assured the aspirants, delegates and their agents that all ballots used in the election were retrieved and secured and that on this basis, they consented that the exercise which only remained sorting, counting and declaration should continue.
That he was however, shocked when the Chairman of the Committee, at the new venue, asked if any of the party agents had any ballots with them and if so, they should bring them forward for addition and collation.
That based on the foregoing, Engr. Musa Wada informed the Committee that his Agent retrieved some ballots and was asked by the Committee to bring them forward, which were added to 148 ballots already counted in favour of Engr. Wada.
That the 600 ballots received from Engr. Musa Wada were all thumb printed in favour of him and were included and counted amongst his votes despite protests by the Claimant and the Agent of Senator Dino Melaye.
That it was these 600 ballots/votes that were added to the 148 votes retrieved by the Committee that was used in declaring Engr. Wada Musa as the winner of the primary elections.
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That it was only in respect of Engr. Wada Musa that retrieved ballots were received by the Committee from a candidate and or his Agent. He claims that looking at the lawful votes cast and already in the custody of the Committee, he scored the highest lawful votes (despite the 274 missing votes) cast at the election which is 710. Finally, he claims that though he appealed the result of the primary elections as provided in the guidelines for the election, the PDP Appeal Panel did not consider the appeal or invite him to ventilate his grievances till date.
Based on the foregoing, the Claimant claims 10 declaratory and injunctive reliefs, all geared towards declaring him as winner of the primaries of 3rd September, 2019, nullifying the return of Engr. Musa Wada as winner of the election, and forwarding the Claimant’s name to INEC as the candidate of the PDP in the November 16th 2019 elections in Kogi State.
On the strength of all these, a High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State ruled that the People’s Democratic Party had no candidate in the November 16 governorship election in the State.
Justice John Olorunfemi of the State High Court 4 in a ruling, mysteriously declared that the primary election conducted on September 3, 2019, which produced Engr. Musa Wada as the candidate of the PDP was fraught with irregularities.
Following this judgement and Engr. Wada’s appeal against it, a three-man bench of the Court of Appeal in Abuja led by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa in its upturned the verdict of the lower court.
The appellate Court held that it was wrong for the lower Court to raise an issue on its own and determine same without hearing from the parties. The Court then affirmed Engr. Musa Wada as the PDP candidate.
The appeal at the Supreme Court was filled by Abubakar Ibrahim Idris who was insisting that he is the rightful candidate, seeking to be declared the PDP candidate. With today’s judgement, the end has come for Abubakar Ibrahim Idris’ agitations
