KOGI GUBER: Appeal Court annuls ruling, affirms Wada as PDP candidate

A Court of Appeal in Abuja has held that Musa Wada was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi State governorship election held on November 16, 2019.

The court, in giving its ruling, dismissed an earlier ruling of the Kogi State High Court, which held that the PDP had no candidate in the election.

A PDP governorship aspirant, Ibrahim Idris, on September 27, 2019 went to the Kogi State High Court to challenge the result of the party’s primary election in which Wada emerged as the winner.

Idris had argued at the court that he won the primary election held on September 3 and 4, 2019 and asked the court to declare him same.

However, the presiding Judge, Roland Olorunfemi dismissed Idris’ claim. In his final ruling on the matter, the judge held that the PDP did not have a candidate in the November 16, election in the state.

Wada, who was not happy with the ruling, filed an appeal through his lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa.

In its ruling on Tuesday in the appeal marked CA/A/193/2020, a three-member panel of the Appeal Court, led by Ibrahim Muhammad held;

“It is a crooked colt of discretion for a court to raise an issue suo motu (raising issues that were not raised by any of the parties in the litigation) and determine same without hearing parties.”

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The court went ahead to rule that “every order made by the trial high court that there was no primary election and that the appellant was not a candidate in the election is hereby set aside,” the court held.

The appellate court allowed the appeal filed by Mr Wada and restored his nomination by PDP as “valid, lawful and in compliance with relevant laws.”

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