A High Court sitting in Yola, Adamawa state, on Tuesday restrained the All Progressives Congress (APC) from recognising Elisha Abbo as its senatorial candidate for Adamawa north in the forthcoming general election.
Delivering his judgment on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Danladi, held that having been expelled from his ward, the senator cannot seek nomination under the party or re-election.
Danladi said the expulsion of the lawmaker by the Mubi north local government council executives on October 7, 2022, binds Abbo and the APC.
The council had expelled Abbo for alleged anti-party activities following his criticism and resistance to the APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
The court, in its judgment, further restrained the senator from parading himself as the candidate of the party for the senatorial district.
During the court hearings, the judge held the senator had full opportunity to present his defence but chose not to do so.
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He further ruled that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit against the senator was not an internal party matter as alleged, and that they had locus standi to file the lawsuit against Abbo since they were official party members.
Recalls that two APC members, Abdullahi Suleiman and Yusha’u Usman of Kolere and Sabon Layi Wards, Mubi North LGA, respectively, sued the Senator and sought for an interpretation regarding his status in APC.
But Senator Abbo has faulted the ruling, describing it as a cash-and-carry judgement. He said that the Court is said to be the last hope of the common man but claimed that where it becomes cash and carry affair, it cannot be described as such.
According to him, it is a bought-over judgement because those who purportedly expelled him from the party are not local government party executives and therefore have no jurisdiction to do so.
He claimed that only the ward executives of the party, according to the APC constitution, have the right to punish any erring member and not the local government or even the state exco.
Senator Abbo argued that the presiding judge had once issued a restraining order on the local government exco from parading themselves as such. The lawmaker said he will take the case to the Court of Appeal and also called on his supporters to disregard the ruling.
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