Appeal Court restores APC candidate’s nomination for Bauchi senatorial district

Tamarauemi Ebimini

The Court of Appeal Abuja, on Friday, reinstated the nomination of Shehu Umar as the validly nominated candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Bauchi South Senatorial District in the forthcoming 25 February election.

A three-member panel of judges, in two separate judgments, nullified the 21 November 2022 judgment by Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja which had voided Mr Umar’s nomination.

Ridwan Abdullahi, who delivered the lead judgments, on Friday, held that the trial court erred when it nullified the victory at the party’s primary held on 29 May, 2022.

The first appeal, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1335/2022, was between Shehu Umar and Ibrahim Zailani and two others, while the second appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1341/2022 was between APC and Mr Zailani and two others.

The appellate court upheld the arguments by Mr Umar’s lawyer, Jibrin Jibrin, that the trial judge’s decision was not supported by the evidence led by Mr Zailani, who was the plaintiff in the suit.

The judge said the two appeals filed by Mr Umar and the APC succeeded on merit.

Consequently, the appellate court made an order setting aside the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Mr Abdullahi restored Mr Umar as the duly nominated candidate of the APC for Bauchi South Senatorial District.

The judgement comes less than two months to the election scheduled to hold on 25 February. Any party that is displeased with the Court of Appeal’s judgement can still appeal against it at the Supreme Court.