A Federal High Court judgement by the Honourable Justice M.G Umar affirming Senator Uba Sani as the Kaduna governorship candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election Friday ignited confusion, CAPITAL POST reports.
The judgement on Friday was delivered barely 24 hours after the same Court which entertained the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senatorial primary between Lawal Adamu and Usman Ibrahim nullified the election and ordered a rerun within 14 days.
The Wednesday’s Court annulment of the PDP Kaduna Central Senatorial which has exactitude of the APC governorship after Wednesday’s judgement sent jitters down the spine of APC supporters and political watchers as well as the PDP supporters who expressed optimism that the APC governorship election tussle between Senator Uba Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial district vs Alhaji Sani Shaaban would be similarly annulled, now posed the biggest disappointment as no one could come to terms with the judgement.
Senator Uba Sani who is currently the Senate Committee Chairman on Insurance, Banking and other Financial Institutions is the preferred Kaduna APC governorship candidate of governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
His rival, Alhaji Sha’aban had on June 20 sued Uba Sani and others before the court alleging irregularities in APC primaries that purportedly produced him as candidate.
Sha’aban in the lawsuit sought the consent of the Court to nullify and declare the said APC primary void.
What further instigated anger was the circumstances with which the ruling originally scheduled for Monday, 1st November was adjourned for Thursday, 5th November and further moved to Friday, November 5th thereby leaving tongues wagging.
Meanwhile, in his judgement on Friday, the Federal High Court Judge, Mohammed Garba Umar dismissed Shaba’ans’s suit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear it.
The Judge further averred that the matter before him was a party affair, hence, his lack of jurisdiction, stating that it was neither a post nor pre-election matter.
The judgement, CAPITAL POST reports, was at the backdrop of complaints by Alhaji Sha’aban that the primary election was not conducted by the legally recognised APC delegates, even as the party eventually adopted indirect mode of primary election.
He argued that the list of delegates were wholesomely manipulated, doctored and substituted from the wards and Local Governments.
A PDP supporter reacting to Friday’s judgement wondered ‘if what is good for the goose was no longer good for the gander”, stressing that the same Honourable Justice Umar delivered judgement and annulled the PDP Senatorial primary.
He said: “As party supporters, we were all here on Wednesday to witness the Court proceedings which annulled the Kaduna Central Senatorial primary but what happened today remain a mystery.”
Meanwhile, Alhaji Sani Sha’aban could not be reached for his reaction to it judgement and to know if he would appeal the judgement or not before filing this report
