The Supreme Court on Wednesday, adjourned till Friday, January 13 to deliver judgment in the legal tussle on the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jigawa State.
A five-member panel of Justices of the court led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun fixed the date for judgment after taking arguments from parties in the appeal filed by Farouk Adamu Aliyu (former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives) and the cross-appeal by Umar Namadi (the current deputy governor of the state).
Umar Namadi through his counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) had won the matter at the Federal High Court in Dutse as well as at the Court of Appeal in Kano.
But, Aliyu is, by his appeal marked: SC/1453/2022 challenging the November 4, 2022 judgment by the Court of Appeal (Kano division) which dismissed his earlier appeal and upheld Namadi’s election as the governorship candidate of the APC in Jigawa State.
A three-member panel presided over by Justice Ita Mbaba, in the November 4 judgment, unanimously dismissed Aliyu’s appeal against the September 13, 2022 judgement by Justice Hassan Dikko of the Federal High Court, Dutse, for lacking in merit.
Justice Dikko had, in the judgment, held among others, that Aliyu lacked the locus standi to sue and added that he failed to prove his case with credible evidence.
However, in the cross-appeal filed by Fagbemi (SAN), Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment which upturned the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked the locus standi to have filed the suit which did not qualify as a pre-election case.
Adopting his client’s brief on Wednesday, counsel to Namadi urged the Apex Court to dismiss the appeal by Aliyu and allow his client’s cross-appeal
Culled from the Nigerian Tribune
