The Supreme Court has dismissed the bid by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to stop a court’s action challenging the propriety of his nomination for the 2015 governorship election by the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The Supreme Court held that the nomination of Mr. Tambuwal by his party should be challenged by another governorship aspirant, Umaru Dahiru, on the ground that he has sufficient justifiable cause.
In a unanimous decision of a five-man panel of the Supreme Court Justices, the Apex Court held that to agree with Mr. Tambuwal that the primary election that produced him cannot be challenged by another governorship aspirant is to allow democracy to be murdered by the governor.
In the lead judgement by Justice Musa Mohammed, read by Justice Chima Nweza, the apex court set aside the decision of the court of appeal that the court action instituted by Mr. Dahiru against Mr. Tambuwal had been overtaken by events on the strength of the election of the governor.
The Supreme Court said the Appeal Court erred in law by holding that the event had overtaken the case simply because the governorship election had been conducted after the primary election.
The Apex Court therefore ordered that a Federal High Court in Abuja should retry the case on its merit and make decision as demanded by law.
Mr. Dahiru had challenged the conduct of the primary election that produced Mr. Tambuwal as candidate of APC on the ground that it was fraught with fraud because the original list of the delegate for primary election was swap in favour of Mr. Tambuwal.
By this development, the Federal High Court in Abuja will now determine the matter on its merit as ordered by the Supreme Court.
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