Court strikes out PDP’s suit against Gombe governor

A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, issued a suit filed by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to Gombe State governor, Inuwa Yahaya, on his re-election bid.

In the suit, the PDP prayed the judge, Binta Nyako, to invalidate the candidacy of Mr. Yahaya as deputy governor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the March 11 election.

Delivering judgment on the case, Nyako dismissed the PDP forgery charge against Mr. Yahaya on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the claim.

But the judge said the plaintiff can raise the issue in another court forum.

Background

The PDP and two of its stalwarts, Muhammed Barde and Timothy Danlele, have filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Yahaya of submitting forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in preparation for the governorship poll.

The plaintiffs named INEC, APC and Mr. Yahaya as defendants in the suit.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Johnson Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has told the court that Mr. Yahaya lied on oath in his submissions submitted to the electoral umpire.

Mr. Usman said the governor while vying for the Election in 2019, already in Form CF001 submitted to INEC, claimed to have worked with AYU & Co Ltd from 1980-1990, however, in Form EC-9 that Mr. Yahaya submitted to seek re-election. , said he worked for the same company from 1985 to 2003.

The lawyer argued that the governor was “inconsistent” in the deposition he made under oath.

He said Mr. Yahaya should be disqualified from the upcoming governorship election contest in Gombe State.

Referring to the constitution and the Electoral Act, Mr. Usman said, “If the third defendant (Mr. Yahaya) has submitted false documents to the first defendant in the INEC EC-9 form in 2022, he is not qualified to contest the governorship election of Gombe State.”

The plaintiff’s lawyers have urged the court to compel INEC to remove Mr. Yahaya’s name from the list of original candidates for the governorship poll.

APC defense

However, the APC and Mr Yahaya said the suit was incompetent.

The defendants through their lawyer, Marshall Abubakar, asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction.

He contended that the plaintiffs had no right to file a suit challenging the nomination of another political party’s candidate.

Mr. Abubakar told the court that the PDP could not prove any cause of action against Mr. Yahaya and the APC.

Lawyers for the defendants contended that the plaintiffs’ suit was barred by law, which was filed outside the law 14 days after INEC published the name of Mr. Yahaya as the APC flag bearer for the poll.