A Federal High Court in Abuja, dismissed with substantial cost, a suit filed by a chieftain of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kogi, Mohammed Jamiu Audu, seeking to remove Kogi governor, Idris Wada, from office.
In dismissing the suit, the judge said the case constituted the most frivolous case and abuse of court process he had ever heard, Justice Kafarati upholding the preliminary objection of Wada’s lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN).
The judge said the plaintiff had no locus to institute the case since he had nothing to do with Wada’s election.
The judge further held that the subject matter of the suit was the election of Wada and that a Federal High Court had no jurisdiction to entertain such a case.
Justice Kafarati held that the plaintiff filed the case six months after the election was held, making the suit a post-election matter which could only be entertained by the Kogi Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The judge asked the plaintiff to pay each of the four defendants N500,000 as cost, for a total sum of N2million. The defendants in the suit were the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Wada, the Peoples Democratic Part (PDP), and former governor of the state, Abubakar Audu.
The plaintiff had claimed that the process which led to the conduct of the December 3, 2011 Kogi governorship election, which brought Wada as its sole beneficiary, was allegedly manipulated by INEC in violation of the Electoral Act.
The plaintiff, who said he participated in the ACN’s primary and was its Deputy Governorship candidate, with Professor Yusufu Obaje as the governorship flag-bearer, prior to May 28, 2011, argued that he remained a legitimate candidate of the party even when Obaje moved to another party.
Audu, who also questioned the legitimacy of INEC’s decision to substitute him and Obaje with Abubakar Audu in the December 3, 2011 election, argued that the process that produced Wada as the PDP’s candidate for the election violated the Electoral Act, particularly section 33.
The plaintiff, who raised five questions for the court’s determination, asked the court to, among others, declare that he was the valid and legitimate winner of the election, and was therefore entitled to be made state governor.
He thus asked the court to order Wada to vacate office, and for the state’s Chief Judge to swear him in immediately.
Wada’s lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), argued that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (the legal standing) to institute the case on the ground that the plaintiff not being a member of the PDP, he cannot contest the process adopted by PDP in choosing its candidate.
He observed that Audu failed to sue his party, which allegedly substituted him with another candidate and under whose banner he stood for election.
Wada’s lawyer also challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the suit. He argued that the suit related to post-election issues that could only be taken before the election tribunal.
Lawyers to INEC and PDP made similar legal arguments and urged the court to dismiss the suit.
The court duly obliged.
