Sadiq Wali, the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kano state, has vowed to go to Appeal Court after he was sacked by a Federal High Court in the state.
The Federal High Court declared Mohammed Sani Abacha, son of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, as the duly elected gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Kano on Thursday.
The judgment, delivered by the Presiding Judge, Justice A.M Liman, was made via zoom, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to expunge Wali’s name and substitute it with Abacha’s.
The court then recognized the primary election, held at Lugard House by Shehu Wada Sagagi ‘s faction, which produced Abacha over the one conducted by Wali’s side at Sani Abacha Youth Centre
Dissatisfied with the judgement, Wali, son of former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aminu Wali, said he would reclaim his mandate at Appeal Court.
Speaking to Journalists in Kano , Wali called on PDP supporters to remain calm, saying that his lawyers are studying the judgement in preparation for appeal.
According to Wali, his lawyers had already discovered several errors on the judgement, which would give him a firm ground to reclaim what he described as “mandate of Kano people” at the appellate
Wali recalled that a PDP governorship aspirant, Ja’afar Sani Bello, had dragged him to court to challenge his candidature but won at the Appeal Court.
“we will win at Appeal Court God willing. We will be victorious and emerge winners of the 2023 elections by God’s grace”.
“This judgement is riddle with errors but because i am not a legal practitioner, i can not say much on this, but my lawyers will speak about it,” Wali said.
On his part, Wali’s lawyer, Nasir Adamu Aliyu (SAN) said they had recorded more than twenty grounds for appeal at the higher court.
According to Aliyu, Wali won at Appeal Court when Ja’afar Sani Bello filed a suit challenging his primary election after it was duly conducted and supervised by the national body of PDP.
“We won at Appeal Court on the ground that any primary election, conducted by state chapter of the party, not national body, is null and void. Again, we were not party to the Ja’af toar’s suit, but the high court insisted that we must join the suit. Eventually, we won at Appeal Court”.
“The Appeal Court rules that they do not have ground to file suit against Sadiq Wali because the primary election they conducted was not organized and supervised by the national body of the party. It was supervised by the state chapter and as such, it is illegal” Aliyu, SAN, explained.
He added that they would be served with the copy of the judgement in preparation for the appeal.
He said another error made by the judge was that the notice of primary election was served to national body of INEC, not state headquarters.
Against this backdrop, Aliyu explained that section 82 of the Electoral Act 2022 says notice of primary election should be served to national headquarters of INEC, not state, in not less than 21 days.
“We served the notice before the deadline, but the judge declared the primary election illegal because the national body of PDP served headquarters of INEC not state headquarters. This is a big mistake. The PDP was on course to have served INEC national headquarters,” he explained.
The lawyer therefore disclosed that his client had given him the nod to file appeal.
Abdullahi Jalaluddeen
