A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal in Yola on Thursday upheld the election of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Emmanuel Bwacha, Taraba State and Ms Aishatu Ahmed also known as Aisha Binani, Adamawa State.
The panel had Justices T. Y Hassan, M. O. Bolaji, and J. G. Abundaga.
The court set aside a ruling by the High Court nullifying their candidacy and ordered that their names be forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the APC governorship candidates for both states.
Recall that the Federal High Court in Yola, Adamawa State, had on October 13, nullified the candidature of Binani as the governorship candidate of the APC in the state.
Based on suit FHC/YL/CS/12/2022 filed by another APC governorship aspirant in Adamawa and former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, the court voided Binani’s candidature.
The court also refused to order a fresh APC governorship primary in Adamawa State.
Dissatisfied by the court’s ruling, which refused to order a fresh primary that would have enabled him to contest, Ribadu filed an appeal in a suit marked CA/YL/203/2022.
However, the court in its ruling on Thursday dismissed the appeal but allowed Binani’s appeal seeking to overturn the judgement given by the Federal High Court.
It would also be recalled that Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo, Taraba State, had on September 20, 2022, nullified the governorship primary election that produced Bwacha as the candidate of the party.
Ruling in the case filed by one of the governorship aspirants, Mr. David Kente, the court directed INEC to conduct a fresh governorship primary in the state within 14 days.
The court also ordered Bwacha to stop parading himself as the governorship candidate of the APC, as well as INEC to stop recognising Bwacha as a candidate.
