The Court of Appeal in Kano has issued a stay of execution in the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano, made by Justice M.N. Yunusa, which declared all the votes cast for Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti and other Labour Party candidates in Abia and Kano states as null and void.
The Appellate Court’s order follows an application filed by Dr. Otti.
A subsequent appeal was filed by Umeh Kalu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) representing the Labour Party, urging the higher court to overturn the trial court’s judgment. He argued that the trial court had made a legal error and caused a miscarriage of justice by entertaining a lawsuit that lacked any legal basis.
The Abia State Governor-elect’s legal team requested that he be included as an interested party in the case and that the lower court’s LP candidates. Justice M N Yunusa had declared all LP votes as “wasted votes”, citing the party’s failure to submit its membership register to the INEC within 30 days before the commencement of their primaries.
On issuance of Certificate of Return, the trial Judge declined, saying “the parties thatjudgment be suspended until a decision is reached the case before it. The Appeal Court has granted Otti’s request, putting the lower court’s judgment on hold. The initial lawsuit was filed by Ibrahim Haruna Ibrahim, who sought the nullification of the LP candidates’ votes in the 2023 election.
The applicant also urged the high court to set aside the Certificate of Return issued to all LP candidates and order INEC to return the first runner up in all places won by participated in Abia state are not parties before this court.” The appellate court will now look into the merit of the case, issues having been joined.
