The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday reserved judgment in a suit seeking to void the emergence of former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as All Progressives Congress (APC)’s candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District of Yobe.
Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a short ruling, said the judgment date would be communicated to parties 24 hours to its delivery.
The judge made this known after lawyers to the parties adopted their processes and presented their arguments for and against the case.
When the case was called, Francis Mgboh, who appeared for the plaintiff, Hassan Kafayos, adopted all their processes and urged the court to grant their reliefs.
Citing a previous Supreme Court decision, Mgboh argued that the apex court made it clear that issues of candidate nomination in an election are issues of constitutional provisions.
The lawyer submitted that Lawan was never a candidate in the May 18 APC primary.
Mgboh, who stressed that the election was fixed for May 18 and not May 20, said Lawan never bought a nomination form for the senatorial position.
“He actually not supposed to be on the list,” he said.
Besides, the lawyer argued that the election was conducted through a repealed Act.
He, therefore, held that there was no election that produced Lawan as senatorial candidate.
He prayed the court to declare Kafayos as a validly nominated candidate for the poll.
Adedayo Adedeji, SAN, who appeared for APC, and Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, who represented Lawan, disagreed with Mgboh’s submission.
Adedeji, in his argument said a preliminary objection was filed to challenge the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit.
The senior lawyer adopted his processes and prayed the court to dismiss Kafayos’ suit with a substantial cost.
He described the suit as an abuse of court process, arguing that the suit ought nkt yo be filed by the plaintiff.
“The court has no jurisdiction because the suit is statute barred, having been filed outside the time frame prescribed by the constitution,” he said.
He observed that the primary was held in May while the suit was filed long after the time.
Adedeji also urged the court to discountenance with the document in which questions for cross examination of subpoenaed witnesses were compiled, describing it as incompetent.
Abdulalim Akeem, who appered for the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, also urged the court to dismiss the suit, whil Aruwa sought a N100 million cost against Kafayos.
On his part, P. A. Bello, lawyer to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), aligned himself with the arguments Adedeji and Aruwa.
Bello argued that the case lacked merit and ought not to have been filed in the first instance.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit with substantial cost.
After listening to the parties, Justice Ibrahim reserved judgment to a date to be communicated to the lawyers.
Kafayos, in the originating summons filed by Mgboh, had sued APC, Prof. Yilwatda; Lawan and INEC as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.
The plaintiff, an aggrieved aspirant in the May 18 Yobe North Senatorial District primary election, prayed the court to void the emergence of Lawan, the former Senate President, as party’s candidate for the 2027 poll.
Kafayos, in the suit, sought four reliefs.
He sought a declaration that the deliberate exclusion or suppression of his lawful participation, a financial member of APC, as aspirant in the May 18 senatorial election by the 1st and 2nd defendants without any reasonable cause, breached his right of freedom from discrimination.
He said this is guaranteed by Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution.
He said the defendants’ action breached Sections 84, 85, 86 and 87 of the Electoral Act, 2026 and also violated the party’s guidelines as provided for in Articles 2, 9.3 and 20 of the APC’s constitution not to undermine democratic procedures or principle in the internal affairs of the party.
The claimant, therefore, sought an order of injunction restraining APC and Yilwatda from forwarding Lawan’s name to INEC as consensus candidate of the party to have been lawfully nominated as candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
He also sought an order restraining INEC from accepting or publishing Lawan’s name “over the flawed primary election of the 1st defendant for Yobe North Senatorial District primary election that took place on the 18th of May, 2026.”
He equally sought an order, compelling the 1st, 2nd and 4th defendants to conduct a fresh primary election for the senatorial district or to recognise him as the duly nominated candidate of the party in the primary elecause.
Kafayos further prayed the court for an order directing APC, Yilwatda and Lawan to jointly and severally pay him the sum of N50 million as aggravated and exemplary damages for his wrongful exclusion as aspirant in the poll contrary to statutory provision, Electoral Act, 2026 and the party’s constitution.
Kafayos, in the affidavit he deposed to, said as a financial member of APC vying to represent his people in the 2027 election as senator, he duly indicated his interest by procuring the party’s Expression of Interest (EoI) Form.
He said upon completion of the form, same was duly returned and acknowledged by the party on May 6.
He said subsequently the party organised a screening exercise for all intended aspirant that had successfully submitted their EoI Forms.
He said he was successfully cleared by the APC’s Screening Committee as one of the aspirants for the primary election scheduled for May 18.
According to him, on May 18, after waiting for many hours, the election committee of the 1st defendant appeared at the Yobe North Senatorial District primary election venue at Government lodge Gashua Yobe at about 3.25pm and without any prior notice or negotiation to announce that only the 3rd defendant had been cleared.
He alleged that they informed him that he had been disqualified from the election contrary to his constitutional right and the provision of the Electoral laws and regulation set out by INEC.
He said the unprecedented situation caused serious pandemonium among the voters who were fed up with Lawan representing them in the Senate.
He said the voters started chanting his nickname, “Iroko” “Iroko” “Iroko” as their candidate for Senate.
He alleged that members of the electoral committee, with the support of Lawan, used some officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to fire teargas at the venue of the primary election to disperse the crowd of voters gathered for the direct primary election at Gashua, Yobe.
He said he knew there was no direct primary or consensus election conducted at the designated venue at Gashua, Yobe May 18, since all voters were dispersed by the Nigeria Police Force teargas.
He alleged that he later saw on social media that the committee had left the neutral venue ground at government’s lodge, Gashua scheduled for the election and moved to Lawan’s private residence at Gashua in Yobe where about seven persons affirmed Lawan as APC’s candidate for the senatorial district.
He said this was at the detriment of the party’s internal democratic procedures and compliance with the electoral guidelines of INEC.
He said photographs of Lawan’s affirmation by either six or seven persons at his private residence in Gashua on May 18 were copied from his Redmi A5 handset and printed from his HP Laser-Jet P-2015 printer and attached as Exhibits “G”.
The aspirant said he exhausted all efforts by him to seek internal administrative procedure to register his grievances to the party through its state’s Chairman Appeal Committee, Damaturu in Yobe by submitting his complaint in writing dated May 18.
Kafayos said it would be in the interest of justice to set aside the flawed poll to allow a fresh election as a result of absence of transparency and breach of internal democratic process.
Alternatively, the aggrieved aspirant prayed that INEC should disqualify Lawan and declare him the candidate duly elected for the senatorial district.
But Lawan, APC and Yilwatda urged the court to dismiss the suit in their separate processes.
Lawan in his preliminary objection, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit, urging the court to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.
The APC also corroborated Aruwa’s argument in a preliminary objection filed by Adedeji, SAN.
Adedeji prayed the court to dismiss the suit for being fundamentally defective and for vesting no jurisdiction on the court.
Adedeji equally argued that the suit is statute-barred as it was filed outside the mandatory 14-day period prescribed by Section 285(14) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Rule 9 of the Practice Directions, 2022.
Yilwatda, in his counter affidavit deposed to by Lovelyn Donatus, a legal officer in the Legal Services Department of APC, averred that the party duly constituted the Primary Election Committee that conducted the Senatorial poll.
