Jigawa APC guber ticket battle: Supreme Court fixes Jan 13 for judgment

The Supreme Court on Wednesday in Abuja fixed Friday, January 13 to deliver final judgment in the dispute over 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 Leaders of the House of Representatives, and the cross-appeal by Umar Namadi, current Deputy Governor of the state.

Aliyu is by the 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.

In the cross-appeal filed by Lateef Fagbemi, Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment which upturned the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked locus standi to have filed the suit which did not qualify as a pre-election case.

Adopting his client’s brief on Wednesday, lawyer to Namadi, Lateef Fagbemi urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal by Aliyu and allow his client’s cross-appeal.

Fagbemi argued that the Appeal Court was wrong to have exercised jurisdiction over Aliyu’s appeal, which arose “from an action improperly constituted.”

Lawyer to Aliyu, Onyechi Ikpeazu, argued otherwise and prayed the court to allow his client’s appeal.