Niger Court Rules On Jurisdiction Over LG Election Case Nov 7

Trial judge of the Federal High Court sitting in Minna, Niger State,  Justice Aminu Garba, has fixed the 7th November, 2022, to determine whether or not to entertain the Peoples Democratic Party suit challenging the conduct of the local government elections in the state.

The plaintiff had alleged a violation of the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act and was adjourned for parties to address the court on whether or not it had the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

The counsel to the plaintiff PDP Mohammed Ndayako (SAN) while adopting his written address as an argument urged the court to declare jurisdiction submitted that the reliefs 1,2,9 and 10 sought by the plaintiff had specifically directed at the first defendant INEC which is a federal government agency while citing an appeal court decision in the case of Abia State Independent Electoral Commission that the court concluded that Federal High Court had the jurisdiction to entertain such a case.

The PDP counsel drew the attention of the court to unreported judgments of the Federal High Court sitting in Edo State which invalidated the State Electoral Law and the State Independent Electoral Commission enactment law 2017 as amended in 2022 as well as the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Ebonyi State which invalidated the entire Local Government Elections conducted in violation of the electoral act 2022 particularly section 150.

He urged the court to be persuaded by the decision of the two Federal High Courts and hold that it had the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

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On the contrary, the counsel to the second and third defendants, the state’s attorney-general Nasara Danmalam, adopting his written address argued that the plaintiff’s case did not fall within the provision of section 251 of the 1999 constitution as amended for that the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the case.