Sokoto guber: Tambuwal, Dahiru know fate March 10

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, will on March 10 decide whether or not Senator Umaru Dahiru who is seeking to be declared as governor of Sokoto state can vary his prayers earlier filed in a suit against the election of Governor Aminu Tambuwal.

Dahiru suit which had asked the court to remove Sokoto state Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress from office is being retried on the order of the supreme court.

Plaintiff in the suit, Senator Umaru Dahiru wants the court to nullify the return of Tambuwal as the governorship candidate of APC in the 2015 gubernatorial election in Sokoto state.

He is claiming that the December 4, 2014, APC primary election which produced Tambuwal was conducted in gross violation of Section 87 of the 2010 Electoral Act and the APC 2014 election guidelines.

At a resumed hearing of the suit yesterday, the plaintiff’s counsel, Ikoro N. Ikoro, moved his application seeking the variation of his pleadings in the motion on notice.

The plaintiff asked the court to declare that in the circumstances of the primary election, it is he and not Tambuwal that is entitled to be returned as the governorship candidate of the APC for the governorship election conducted on April 11, 2015.

He is also seeking declaration of the court that it is unlawful for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to act on a candidate nominated by the APC for the purpose of the general election in Sokoto when such a candidate was elected in violation of the electoral guidelines established by the APC itself.

In opposition to the application of Umar, counsel to the APC (1st defendant) Jibrin Okutepa SAN urged the court not to grant the application.

Describing the application as “strange” Okutepa stated that, “if granted, it will change the character of the plaintiff’s suit, already decided by the Supreme Court.

“With the application for amendment of prayers on his motion paper, the plaintiff now wants the court to declare him as a candidate in a primary he said was flawed and marred by electoral irregularities.

“A party must be consistent in its prayers; the change in prayers if granted, robs the court of the jurisdiction to hear the case based on the provisions of Section 285 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

“My Lord, in line with the constitutional provision, the relief the plaintiff is now seeking rests on the Election Petition Tribunal.

“Granting the relief, means this court has disobeyed the Supreme Court’s decision pursuant to Section 287 (3) of 1999 CFRN as amended” Okutepa submitted.

On his part, Sunday Ameh SAN, counsel to Tambuwal (2nd defendant) in his counter affidavit, strongly opposed the application for variation of prayers on the motion paper.

While aligning with the submissions of APC’s lawyer, Ameh insisted that depositions in the counter affidavit which the plaintiff considered “offensive” are facts relevant to the determination of the case.

However, he stated that, ” this court cannot grant prayers that will change the character of plaintiff’s pleading.

“Ordinarily, we would have left the plaintiff to battle in court with a self contradictory claim -which in one breadth is challenging the governorship primary election that produced the 2nd defendant as candidate sponsored by the APC and seeks from this court an order nullifying the primary.

“Then, on the other hand, the plaintiff is asking the court to make an order allowing him to utilise the outcome of a primary he said was marred by electoral fraud” Ameh said.

He said “the new claim being introduced in the amendment proposed are touching on the return of Umar as governor and nullification of Tambuwal as governor.

Ameh posited that the application was lacking in merit, and therefore asked court to dismiss it.

INEC did not file any counter affidavit to oppose the plaintiff’s application, adding that, ” We are leaving the issue at the court’s discretion.

It would be recalled that the apex court had last year remitted the case file back to the Federal High Court for a fresh trial on the ground that there is life in the case in spite of the conduct of the governorship election that produced Tambuwal.

The apex court had disagreed with Tambuwal in his claim that the case of the plaintiff challenging his nomination by APC had become academic and hypothetical while the Supreme Court also order an accelerated hearing at the high court level of the suit.

Dahiru, a former member of the Senate, and Barrister Aliyu Abubakar Sanyinna, are seeking Tambuwal’s removal from office on the basis that the governor was wrongly nominated by APC as the governorship candidate of the party in the election which held on April 11, 2015.