By John Ikani
The Federal High Court 1 sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, presided over by Justice A.M. Anka, has voided the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election, which produced the Senator representing Adamawa Central, Aishatu Dahiru Binani, as the governorship candidate of the party for the 2023 elections.
In a ruling on Friday, the court presided by Justice A.M Anka asked Binani to desist from parading herself as the APC candidate in the state.
The court also declared that there will be no candidate for the APC in the state for the 2023 elections.
Binani, the senator representing Adamawa central, defeated Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and Jibrilla Bindow, former governor of the state, to emerge the winner of the primary held on May 26.
She was the only female in the contest for the governorship ticket of the party.
Binani polled 430 votes to beat Bindow who had 103 votes and Ribadu, who secured 288 votes.
Ribadu went on to file a suit, seeking the nullification of the primary conducted on May 27, which was won by the senator.
The former EFCC boss who hinged his suit on alleged votes buying, over-voting and delegate inducement, asked the court to disqualify Binani and declare him the candidate of the APC in the state.
He sought an order restraining APC from submitting Binani’s name to INEC as the governorship candidate of APC on the grounds that she had emerged from an invalid and unlawful exercise.
In his response to APC and Binani’s notice of preliminary objections, Ribadu’s counsel, Mathew Burkaa (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the notice of preliminary objections.
He sought an order restraining APC from submitting Binani’s name to INEC as the governorship candidate.
But in the judgment, Justice Anka nullified the entire primary election.
He held that the process was not compliant with the 2022 Electoral Act, the Nigerian constitution, and the party guidelines.
The judge said Binani’s victory was in clear contravention of Section 85 of the Electoral Act because there was “manifest overvoting”.
“My findings are that there’s non-compliance to the Electoral Act, as well as party guidelines and the constitution because there was manifest overvoting, which has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said.
“The first defendant (APC) cannot field a candidate for the 2023 general elections; the primary election is invalid, and the court, therefore, sees the return of Aishatu Ahmed Binani as unlawful. The plea for fresh elections is hereby refused.”
