The Supreme Court has affirmed Lawal Usman as the duly nominated flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Kaduna Central Senatorial District election.
An aggrieved aspirant Usman Ibrahim had challenged Mr Usman’s emergence from a primary election conducted by the PDP in Kaduna on 23 May 2022.
But delivering a unanimous judgement on the appeal, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by John Okoro dismissed the suit for being unmeritorious.
A member of the court’s panel, Helen Ogunwumiju, who read the lead decision, upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeal that affirmed Mr Usman’s candidacy for the 25 February National Assembly election.
Ms Ogunwumiju in her reasoning said the decision of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) was validly made.
Background
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, in a verdict last December, restored Mr Usman’s candidature after the Federal High Court, Kaduna voided the PDP primary election for Kaduna Central Senatorial District.
The Federal High Court, in its decision, set aside the outcome of the primary election and ordered a re-run.
In compliance with the court order, the party conducted a fresh primary election which Mr Usman won again.
But Mr Ibrahim was dissatisfied with the rerun election results after he came second in the exercise.
He approached the court to nullify the outcome of the poll.
In the trial court’s judgement, the judge, Mohammed Umar, affirmed Mr Ibrahim’s case.
The judge held that the rerun election did not comply with the Electoral Act and the PDP guidelines.
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Determined to upturn the court’s findings, Mr Usman appealed the verdict.
In the Court of Appeal judgement, Peter Affen held that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute.
Mr Affen said the power to nominate a candidate for an election lies with the NWC of political parties.
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