Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Supreme Court, yesterday, sacked candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 11 governorship election in Taraba State, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha.
A five-member panel of the apex court, in a judgment delivered, agreed with the judgment of a Federal High Court in Jalingo, Taraba State, that the APC indeed failed to conduct a valid primary election to produce its flag bearer for the governorship poll in the state.
Subsequently, Justice Adamu Jauro, who read the unanimous decision of the apex court, set aside a Court of Appeal judgment, which had declared Bwacha candidate of the APC.
A governorship aspirant in Taraba State, under the platform of the APC, Hon. David Kente, had dragged the party, Bwacha and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court challenging the nomination of Bwacha as candidate of the APC.
He had faulted the process of the party’s primary, claiming that the whole process was manipulated in favour of the Senator.
But a Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo, in its judgment, agreed with the submissions of Kente and subsequently nullified the nomination of Bwacha as the APC governorship candidate in the state.
The trial judge Simon Amobeda, went on to order the APC to conduct a fresh primary election within 14 days in line with the party’s guidelines and the law.
Dissatisfied, Bwacha approached the appellate court in Yola, Adamawa State, which delivered judgment in its favour, thereby necessitating the appeal at the apex court.
Delivering judgment, the apex noted that the lower court ought not to have set aside the judgment of the trial court, because it was evidently clear that the APC did not conduct a valid primary.
Justice Jauro subsequently set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Yola Division, which had on November 24, 2022, reinstated Emmanuel Bwacha as governorship candidate of the APC, noting that the results of the primary elections were concocted and fraudulently allocated to Bwacha.
The Court of Appeal, Yola division, reinstated Bwacha as the validly nominated governorship candidate of the APC.
In a unanimous decision, the three-man panel led by Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan set aside the judgment of the Federal High court and ruled in favour of Bwacha.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the court proceedings, the appellant, Hon. Kente described the judgment as a land mark decision that has brought hope to the people of the state, and expressed hope that others would take the Supreme Court decision in good faith and make the APC stronger in the end.
