The Federal High Court in Abuja has reserved judgment in a suit filed by Adamu Aliyu, an aggrieved aspirant in the May 20 All Progressives Congress (APC)’s primary for the Jos North-North Constituency seat in Plateau.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a short ruling on Friday, stated that the judgment date would be communicated to parties.
The judge made this known after Aliyu’s counsel, Yakubu Ruba, SAN, and lawyers to the defendants adopted their processes and presented their arguments for and against the case.
Aliyu, a serving member of Plateau House of Assembly representing Jos North-North Constituency on APC’s platform, had instituted the suit to challenge his alleged unlawful substitution after he allegedly won the primary election.
The lawmaker sued the APC, Abdulkadir Hassan and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1618/2026.
The plaintiff, who sought five questions for determination, prayed the court for 11 reliefs.
He sought a declaration that after validly winning the May 20 election, he was the lawfully nominated candidate of APC and whose name ought to be submitted to INEC as candidate for the 2027 election in the state.
Aliyu said this is in regards to the combined provisions of Sections 84(1)&(2) and 86 of the Electoral Act, 2026, and Paragraph 13(viii) of the Guidelines for the Nomination of Candidates for the 2027 General Elections.
He prayed the court to set aside any document ascribed to him by the party purporting to withdraw or substitute him as the rightfully nominated candidate for the seat, for not being document personally made by him.
He urged the court to also hold that this was not in compliance with the provisions of Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2026.
He sought an order nullifying the defendants’ actions or process for the purpose of substituting him as the validly nominated candidate of the party for the constituency seat for being unlawful, null and void.
Aliyu, who prayed the court to made an order of injunction restraining the APC from substituting him as the validly nominated candidate, also urged the court to bar Hassan from parading himself as party’s candidate.
Adopting Aliyu’s processes, Ruba told the court that INEC, which monitored the election, confirmed in its counter affidavit that Aliyu won the poll.
He argued that if his client was disqualified before the poll as claimed, the party ought to have stated the reasons and issued him a certificate of disqualification in line with the provision of the Electoral Act.
The lawyer informed the court that Aliyu won the poll with a total of 13, 066 votes.
He urged the court to award N10 million against the party for filing a preliminary objection and another N50 million against 1st and 2nd defendants in the substantive suit, so that political parties would always abide by their own guidelines.
Ruba cited another judgment delivered by Justice Peter Lifu in a case between Abdulganiyu Arobo against APC and others, to back his argument.
But APC and Hassan disagreed with Aliyu’s argument.
A. G. Yirvoms, who appeared for the 1st defendant (APC), urged Justice Ibrahim to dismiss the suit for want of merit.
The lawyer, who argued that the suit was statue-barred, also submitted that the case was not justiciable.
He said Aliyu failed to exhaust internal dispute mechanism of the party before filing the suit.
Besides, he said the plaintiff had been cought in the web of exceeding the number of pages of his process against the rules of the court
Yirvoms alleged that Aliyu, who was disqualified, could not have participated in the election.
“He cannot win election where he did not partake,” he said.
The lawyer, who told the court that INEC did not conduct the election but only monitored the poll, insisted that the party, which conducted the poll is the custodian of the result.
Hassan’s counsel, Yakubu Philimon, SAN, aligned with Yirvoms’ submission.
Philimon corroborated that Aliyu did not participate in the primary poll where the 2nd defendant (Hassan) was elected.
He said INEC’s written assessment did not clearly say that the plaintiff won.
According to him, INEC only said that the 3rd defendant monitored the election and submitted the name of the winner.
Philimon urged the court to discountenance Ruba’s submissions and dismiss the suit for being unfounded and not justiciable.
INEC, in its respond, disagreed with the APC’s and Hassan’s lawyers.
The commission’s counsel, Muawiyya Inusa, told the court that they filed a counter affidavit on Aug. 24.
Inusa said the 24-paragraph counter affidavit had one annexus which was the report of the monitoring of the election.
The lawyer, who adopted the process, urged the court to grant the reliefs as sought by the plaintiff (Aliyu).
According to him, as an officials of the court, we hold the court the duty to present facts.
Inusa told the judge that Aliyu, the plaintiff, won the May 20 election.
“Under Section 81(4) of Electoral Acts, we have done our duty and we can confirm to the court that the plaintiff won,” he said.
After listening to parties, Justice Ibrahim held that the judgment date would be communicated to parties.