The Court of Appeal, Yola Division, has upheld the election of Abdulrauf Abdulkadir Modibbo of APC as member-elect for Yola North/Yola South/Girei Federal Constituency in Adamawa State.
Upholding the election in their respective judgments, Justice Chidi Nwaoma, Justice J.S Abiriyi, and Justice Abdullahi Bayero of the Appeal Court upheld the ruling of the lower court which said the suits challenging the victory of Abdulrauf at the party primaries by his co-contestants was filed outside the 14 days period required by law.
Speaking on the judgement, counsel to Abdulrauf, Samuel Atom, said the case emanated from APC primaries held in October last year where some people were dissatisfied with the outcome and went to court.
“We challenged the competency of the suits on the ground that it goes contrary to the provision of Section 285 of the constitution..
“Today the Court of Appeal has spoken laud and clear. It upheld the position of the lower court and also dismissed the cases,” Atom said.
He also said that some far reaching decisions made by the lower court which PDP candidate defeated in the main election was hoping to benefit from was also set aside by the Court of Appeal.
“The Court of Appeal had ruled that the lower court was wrong and set aside those pronouncements. So, for us today we thank the Almighty God for the judgement just delivered,” Atom said.
Also speaking, counsel to APC in the suits, Sule Shuaibu, said they were happy with judgement.
“The objection we raised was held, that the suit was filed outside the 14 days period.
“The Justice of the Court of Appeal this morning upheld our appeal in respect of four different suits while also dismissing the cross appeal in respect of the order of dismissal in respect of the status of limitation,” Shuaibu said.
