The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday affirmed Musa Wada as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the November 16, 2019 gubernatorial election in Kogi State.
The appeal was filed by Abubakar Mohammed, Ibrahim Idris and others against Mr Wada over the primary election held in the state.
Mr Idris, also of the PDP, had on September 27, 2019, approached Kogi State High Court to challenge the outcome of the primary election conducted on September 3 and 4, 2019 in the state in which Mr Wada won.
Mr Idris in his suit argued that he won the primary and not Mr Wada.
But the trial court Judge, Roland Olorunfemi, dismissed the claim and held that Mr Idris did not substantiate his claim.
In his judgement, Justice Olorunfemi proceeded to hold that PDP did not have a candidate in the last election in Kogi State.
Dissatisfied with the lower court decision, Mr Wada filed an appeal through his lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa, challenging the judgement on the ground amongst others, that the trial judge did not have jurisprudence to grant reliefs not sought before him.
Delivering judgement in the appeal marked CA/A/193/2020 on Tuesday, a three-member panel led by Ibrahim Muhammad held that, “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.”
The appellate court also set aside every order made by the trial court to the effect that there was no primary election by PDP in the state and that the appellant was not a candidate in the election.
“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.”
Source: Premium Times
