**Insists, APC can not field any candidate
A Federal High Court sitting in Yola has ruled that the All Progressives Congress, (APC) primary that produced Senator Aishatu Binani as the party’s governorship candidate for Adamawa State was invalid
The court declared on Friday that there will be no candidate for the APC in the state for the 2023 elections but said both petitioner and defendants are free to appeal the ruling.
During the primary election, Binani polled 430 votes to defeat her closest contender, Nuhu Ribadu, who scored 280 votes,
Justice Anka held that 51 (1 to 4) of the Electoral Act was violated seeing there was ‘over voting’ during the May 27, 2022 declaration of the results of the APC governorship primary election in Adamawa state.
He held that 50 delegates from Lamurde Local Government Area who ought not to have voted during the primary election were allowed to vote. He held that there was no evidence that the party had conducted a Special Adhoc Delegates election there.
Ribadu had challenged the emergence of Binani in a suit filed on June 9, 2022, claiming that 1,009 delegates were accredited, contrary to the outcome which indicated that a total of 1,011 votes were cast.
The former anti-corruption boss, accordingly urged the court to nullify the election and order a fresh conduct of another governorship primary.
“It is in the interest of our nation that political parties should adhere to internal democracy rules,” Justice Anka quoted a Supreme Court decision.
He accordingly declared that APC cannot field any candidate in the 2023 election.
