Senatorial aspirant Magaji drags APC to court for disobeying order on fresh primaries

An aspirant for the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries for Nasarawa West Senatorial District Barr. Labaran Magaji, has dragged the party to Federal High Court Lafia for alleged refusal to conduct fresh election as ordered by the court.

The Court sitting in Lafia had nullified the APC primaries for Nasarawa West where the APC national chairman Abdullahi Adamu comes from, and ordered for the conduct of a fresh election within 14-days from the day of the judgement.

Magaji had taken the party and Arc. Shehu Tukur, the purported winner of the election to court alleging irregularities during the primary.

Counsel to the plaintiff Barr. Ghali Ahmed, on Wednesday, told the court that they approached the court to ask it to enforce its judgement of November 2nd 2022. since the party had refused to conduct a fresh election as directed by the court.

“When the 14 days ultimatum to conduct fresh election expired, we filed form 49 in accordance with the law for the APC National chairman and secretary to explain to court why they should not be jail for violating its order,” he said.
However, counsel to the national chairman of APC, Barr. Mu’azu Maifata, said they have appealed the judgement of the Federal High Court.

The counsel filed preliminary objection that the Federal High Court does not have jurisdiction to hear the matter on its judgement because the court was served with the notice of appeal.

He said appeal number had been given and the Federal High Court itself had already transferred records of the case to Appeal Court Makurdi, Benue state.

After listening to the counsels, Justice Nehezina Afolabi adjourned the case to December 6 for hearing and rulling on the objection by the defendant.

Similarly, the court had declared Mohammed Atose as the authentic candidate of the primary election of All Progressives Congress (APC) conducted on May 28 for Keana constituency of Nasarawa state, and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to accord any recognition to Mohammed Omadefu as he is not the candidate of APC in the constituency.

Justice Afolabi also directed APC to give Atose, the winner of the primary the recognition and support he deserved as their candidate.

She therefore, directed Omadefu who is also the serving member representing Keana in the Nasarawa state House of Assembly to stop parading himself as the candidate of the party.