Court Fixes March 10 for Ruling on Application Seeking to Unseat Tambuwal

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has fixed March 10 for ruling on an amended application seeking to remove the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, from office, on the grounds that the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced him during the 2015 governorship election was not validly conducted.

The application filed by an APC governorship aspirant, Senator Umaru Dahiru, sought to amend the originating summon filed against the APC, Tambuwal and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendant respectively before the April 11, 2015 governorship election.

In the amendment argued by his counsel, Ikoro Ikoro, the applicant is now asking the Federal High Court to remove Tambuwal from office and declare him the winner of the December 2014 APC primary election.
Dahiru is also asking the court for an order compelling INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the governor and present it to him on the grounds that he was the lawfully elected candidate of the APC at the primary election.

The senator further sought an order nullifying the nomination of Tambuwal by APC for the 2015 governorship election and replaced him as the properly nominated APC candidate to INEC for the 2015 governorship election.
However, in his vehement objection to the application, the APC asked the court to dismiss the request for the amendment on the grounds that it was not in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment of December 9, last year which ordered a retrial of the plaintiff’s case.

The APC represented by Jubrin Okutepa (SAN) argued that the applicant, by the new reliefs sought, had changed the character and direction of his earlier originating summon.

The party told the court that the applicant sought to amend the originating summon because of his sudden discovery that event had overtaken the initial originating summon and that any attempt to allow the amendment will amount to an affront to the Supreme Court judgment of December last year.

Okutepa further argued that the applicant was not consistent in the reliefs being sought in the proposed amendment.
He stated that the applicant in the originating summon had asked the court to nullify the APC primary election on the grounds that it was unlawfully conducted but, in the amended application, he is seeking to be declared winner of the said unlawfully conducted primary election.

The counsel therefore urged the court to refuse the amendment and allow hearing in the initial originating summon as directed by the Supreme Court.

Counsel to Tambuwal, Sunday Ibrahim Ameh (SAN), in his argument, aligned himself with the submission of the APC and urged the court to hold that the amendment been sought by the governorship aspirant lack merit and as such should be dismissed.

The counsel insisted that it was too late in the day for the applicant to seek the relief after the governorship election had been conducted, adding that the proper place for the applicant to ventilate his anger was the Election Petition Tribunal.

Ameh also submitted that the applicant cannot even go to any Election Petition Tribunal because the 21 days required by law under which a petition can be filed to challenge the election of any declared winner had lapsed since 2015.

The senior counsel therefore urged the court to refuse the temptation of turning itself to an election petition tribunal as there is no law for such an action.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole after taking the arguments from both parties, fixed March 10 to give ruling on whether to allow or refuse the proposed amendment sought by the former governorship aspirant.