A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday turned down the bid by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Muhammed Jibrin Barde, to nullify the candidacy of Governor Inuwa Yahaya forthcoming governorship election in Gombe State.
The court struck out a case instituted before it by the PDP and Barde against Governor Inuwa, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and two others.
In a ruling delivered by Justice Binta Nyako, the court dismissed the allegation that the governor submitted forged documents in aid of his qualification.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1301/2022, was brought before the court by PDP, Mohammed Jibrin Barde and Timothy Danlele.
Cited as 1st to 3rd defendants in the matter were INEC, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governor Yahaya, respectively.
Specifically, the plaintiffs, through their lawyer, Johnson Usman (SAN), alleged that the governor lied on oath in documents he presented before the INEC.
But both the APC and Governor Inuwa, through their lawyer, Marshall Abubakar, challenged the allegation and the competence of the suit, even as they urged the court to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.
The defendants argued that PDP and its members lacked the locus standi (legal right) to institute an action to challenge the nomination of a candidate by another political party.
According to the defendants, only members of a party and its aspirants can challenge the outcome of a primary election or the nomination of a candidate.
They argued that the plaintiffs failed to establish any reasonable cause of action, stressing that the suit had become statute barred since it was instituted after INEC published governor Inuwa Yahaya’s name as a candidate for the election.
In her ruling, Justice Nyako upheld the defendants’ preliminary objection and struck out the suit for want of competence.
