The Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, Adamawa state, has set aside the ruling of high courts nullifying the primary elections that produced Emmanuel Bwacha of Taraba state and Aishatu Binani of Adamawa state as governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the two states.
The court on Thursday ordered that their names should be forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as governorship candidates of the APC in the 2023 elections.
In September,Justice Simon Amobeda of a federal high court, Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, sacked Bwacha after a petition by David Kente, a governorship aspirant who lost the primary election.
The judge had maintained that it was not possible for all the result of primary election to have the same handwriting while the returning officer declared that no primary was held in the state at the police headquarters due to security threats.
Bwacha, had appealed the judgement, and alleged that his former party- the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State, was the major cause of the APC problems within the state.
Also in Adamawa state, the Apeal Court quashed the ruling of a federal high court in Yola, nullifying the election of Binani as the governorship candidate of the APC in the state.
The presiding judge, Abdulaziz Anka, had declared that the judgement was based on substantial evidence of non-compliance with the party guidelines and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, who came second during the primary election, had dragged Binani and INEC before the court, alleging vote buying and illegal delegates list at the primary conducted on May 27, 2022.
However,the appellate court on Thursday set aside both judgements in both matters upholding the elections of Bwacha and Binani as governorship candidates of APC in Taraba and Adamawa states respectively.
