The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed Joshua Ishaku as the lawful candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Bwari Area Council chairmanship election, setting aside the majority decision of the Court of Appeal that recognised another person.
In a majority 4 to 1 judgement delivered by a five-member panel on Monday, the Supreme Court overturned the majority ruling of the Court of Appeal and adopted the dissenting opinion of appeal court’s Okon Abang, who had held that Mr Ishaku was validly nominated by the party.
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The judgement came just five days to the local elections expected to be held on Saturday (21 February) in the six council areas, including Bwari, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
It automatically sacks Haruna Audi, who was until Monday’s judgement was recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the chairmanship candidate of the APC in the Bwari Council Area for the upcoming election.
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Delivering the lead judgment, Jamilu Tukur held that Mr Ishaku’s suit was not statute-barred and that the dispute went beyond the internal affairs of a political party, thereby justifying judicial intervention.
The court faulted the trial court and the Court of Appeal majority for dismissing the case on the ground that it was filed outside the 14-day limitation period prescribed under Section 285(9) of the Constitution.
It held that the lower courts failed to properly evaluate the affidavit evidence before them and miscalculated when the cause of action arose.
According to the Supreme Court, time begins to run from the date an aggrieved aspirant becomes aware of the wrongful act complained of, not from undisclosed internal actions within a political party.
A central issue in the appeal was Exhibit J, an affidavit sworn to by the second respondent in an earlier suit, in which he acknowledged that Mr Ishaku scored 33 votes at the APC primary.
The Supreme Court held that the document, involving the same parties and subject matter, was materially relevant and should have been considered alongside subsequent processes.
On the argument that Mr Ishaku failed to exhaust the APC’s internal dispute resolution mechanisms before approaching the court, the justices held that the principle that courts do not interfere in the internal affairs of political parties is not absolute.
The court held that where a party violates its constitution, guidelines or statutory safeguards governing primaries, particularly under Section 84(14) of the Electoral Act 2022, the courts retain supervisory jurisdiction.
It further held that it is ordinarily a losing aspirant who must first exhaust internal remedies, not a declared winner.
Describing the contrary position as contradictory, the court concluded that the dispute transcended internal party management and involved constitutional and statutory rights.
Having resolved all issues in favour of Mr Ishaku, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal in its entirety, set aside the majority judgement of the Court of Appeal and ordered that his name be published as the APC candidate for the forthcoming Bwari Area Council chairmanship election.
Background
The majority decision of the Court of Appeal, delivered by Hamma Barka and Abba Mohammed, had earlier affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court dismissing Mr Ishaku’s suit as statute-barred.
However, Mr Abang dissented.
In his dissenting judgement reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, Mr Abang held that Mr Ishaku established with credible and cogent evidence that he won the APC primary election held on 25 June 2025, polling 33 votes.
He found that Exhibit J corroborated the appellant’s claim that the alleged proceedings of the party’s Election Appeal Committee, which purportedly reversed the result, did not take place.
The dissenting justice also held that Mr Ishaku’s name was validly forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 4 July 2025 and that he was entitled to the reliefs sought.
On the question of whether the APC Secretary for Bwari Area Council had the authority to submit the candidate’s name, Mr Abang noted that none of the respondents properly raised the issue in their briefs.
He further observed that INEC stated on oath that it received the nomination from the APC itself.
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He rejected the trial court’s finding that the suit was incompetent on account of alleged forgery, holding that in determining whether a matter is properly commenced by originating summons, the court must confine itself to the reliefs sought, the supporting affidavit and the questions for determination.
Mr Abang also held that the cause of action arose on 14 July 2025, when the party forwarded the second respondent’s name to INEC. Since the suit was filed within 14 days of that action, he concluded that it was not statute-barred.
Although that view was initially in the minority at the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court has now endorsed its reasoning, bringing the protracted pre-election dispute within the APC in Bwari Area Council to a close.
Find the dissenting judgement of Court of Appeal Abuja here
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