Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, declared Hassan Abdullahi, as the validly elected candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), for the November 11 governorship election for Kogi state.
The Judge made the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Abdullahi challenging his removal as the winner of the NNPP governorship primary election for Kogi state.
The court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Abdullahi as the governorship candidate of NNPP immediately and to remove the name of one Musa Mubarak, which was hitherto forwarded to the commission by the party.
Defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2023, and filed on May 9 by Plaintiff’s Counsel, Mustapha Ibrahim (SAN), are the NNPP, Musa Mubarak, and INEC.
Justice Omotosho also made an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC, its officers, agents or privies from publishing the name of Mubarak as NNPP’s candidate for the forthcoming Kogi state governorship election slated for November 11 in its list of candidates on its portal.
More so, the court ordered INEC to publish the name of Abdullahi as NNPP’s gubernatorial flagbearer in its portal for the Kogi state governorship poll.
In addition, Justice Omotosho mandated NNPP to withdraw the name of Mubarak and resubmit the name of Hassan Abdullahi to INEC for the November 11 gubernatorial election for Kogi state.
Similarly, the court ordered INEC to remove the name of Mubarak as NNPP’s governorship candidate in the November 11 election from its portal and restore Abdullahi’s name as the bonafide standard bearer for NNPP.
Among all the declaratory reliefs sought by the Plaintiff and granted by the court include a declaration “That upon a proper interpretation of Sections 84(1) and 84(5)(b) (i) & (ii) of the Electoral Act 2022, as well as Article 34 of the NNPP Constitution and its Guidelines for the conduct of primaries for the nomination of candidates for off-season gubernatorial elections (Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi), duly issued under the hand of the National Organizing Secretary of the NNPP, any other Governorship primary election purportedly conducted by the NNPP, other than the governorship primary election held on April 16, 2023, duly monitored by INEC, duly sanctioned by the National Working Committee of the NNPP and which produced the Plaintiff as the validly elected governorship candidate of NNPP, is unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional and void ab initio.
