The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday struck out a suit filed by former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi challenging the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election,
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the court struck out the suit after Mr Amaechi, the transport minister during the immediate past administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, withdrew it through his lawyer.
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This development followed Atiku’s choice of Mr Amaechi, who emerged second in the ADC’s presidential primary election held in June, as his running mate.
Mr Amaechi’s lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court on Friday that an application for the discontinuance of the case had been filed after the parties settled their differences.
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The senior lawyer prayed the court to strike out the case.
After listening to the counsel, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik struck out the case as prayed.
Mr Amaechi instituted the suit seeking an order to set aside the presidential primary election held on 25 May, which produced Mr Abubakar as the ADC’s presidential candidate.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1215/2026, the former minister sued Mr Abubakar, the ADC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the defendants.
He alleged in the suit that the primary election was conducted in breach of Section 77(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2026; the ADC’s Constitution, 2026 and Sections 2, 2.1 and 2.2 of ADC’s Guidelines for the conduct of primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2027 general elections.
He sought an order restraining Mr Abubakar from parading himself or presenting himself as ADC’s presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections.
Mr Amaechi, who claimed to be the legitimate winner of the primary election, also sought an order restraining the INEC from recognising Mr Abubakar as presidential candidate of ADC.
He sought for an order, mandating the party to conduct a fresh presidential primary election which election must comply with the Electoral Act, 2006; Article 38.4 of the ADC’s constitution, and the party’s guidelines for the conduct of the primary poll within 14 days from the date of the judgement.
In an affidavit sworn by Mr Amaechi himself, he identified himself as a duly registered member of the ADC at Ward 8, Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers, and a registered voter with the right to vote and be voted for at the general elections.
He described himself as “a graduate of English Language from the University of Port Harcourt, and also a legal practitioner.”
Mr Amaechi said he purchased the party’s nomination form for the presidential primary election, was duly issued the form, screened alongside the other aspirants, and was cleared.
He said he duly participated in the party’s primary and appointed agents and coordinators to represent him and oversee the conduct for him at the national, state and ward levels across the country.
He said that on 27 May, ADC published the purported final result, showing that Mr Abubakar won the election with 1,846,370 votes and that he polled 504,177 votes to come a distant second.
He added that the published result indicated that Mohammed Hayatu-Deen purportedly scored 177,120 votes to come third.
The plaintiff alleged that the entire election process breached and contravened the Electoral Act, 2026, the ADC’s constitution, 2026, and the party’s published guidelines for conducting primary elections to nominate candidates for the 2027 general elections.
Grievances
Part of his grievances detailed in the suit was that the ADC did not use any membership register for the 25 May presidential primary election, contrary to mandatory standards that each political party must submit such a membership register to INEC not later than 21 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses and conventions.
Mr Amaechi said instead, the party relied on the procedure set out in Section 10.8(6) of its guidelines.
He added that the ADC did not apply to INEC for a certified true copy of its membership register across the various states and electoral wards of Nigeria for use for accreditation during the said election.
He said he was present and monitored the election at various electoral wards that make up his local government.
He added that the final declaration of result form published on 27 May was unsigned and lacked columns for the signatures and names of the election committee members who authored them.
Besides, he said the names and signatures of his agent(s) were not on the form “and the document is without a date.”
He said he wrote a letter to the National Organising Secretary of the ADC, requesting certified true copies of the membership register the party used for accrediting voters during the poll.
He said he received a response from the organising secretary that membership register was not used for the election.
Against this development, he said he wrote a petition to the presidential appeal committee of the party pursuant to Section 11 of the guidelines for the conduct of the election.
He said he was invited by the committee and he adopted the petition and also submitted his written submission of facts in further support of the same.
He said when there was no response from the appeal committee, he wrote a letter to the party’s national chairman, David Mark, a former Nigerian senate president, drawing his attention to the appeal committee’s failure to communicate its decision to him.
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“Following the failure of the National Chairman of the 2nd defendant (ADC) to address the concems I raised regarding the said presidential primary election despite my letters and complaints, I proceeded to institute this suit,” he said.
Mr Amaechi backtracked after his nomination as Mr Abubakar’s running mate.
Announcing Mr Amaechi as ADC’s choice for vice-presidential candidate in June, the party’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, said it followed “extensive consultations with party leaders, coalition partners, youth and women stakeholders, and representatives of all geopolitical zones.”
(NAN)
