Sen. Ahmad Lawan (APC-Yobe) and the All Progressives Congress have prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit seeking to void the May 18 Yobe North Senatorial District primary election.
Mr Lawan, the former Senate President and APC, in a separate preliminary objections, told Justice Salim Ibrahim that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear and determine the suit.
Also, the APC’s National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, in his counter affidavit, stated that the plaintiff, Hassan Kafayos, lacked the locus standi to Institute the suit, having been disqualified to participate in the primary.
NAN reports that Kafayos, in the originating summons filed by his lawyer, Francis Mgboh, had sued APC, Yilwatda, Lawan and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.
The plaintiff, who was an aspirant in the poll, in his suit filed on May 29, sought four reliefs.
He sought a declaration that the deliberate exclusion or suppression of his lawful participation, a financial member of APC, as aspirant in the May 18 senatorial election by the 1st and 2nd defendants without any reasonable cause, breached his right of freedom from discrimination. He said this is guaranteed by Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution.
He said the defendants’ action breached Sections 84, 85, 86 and 87 of the Electoral Act, 2026 and also violated the party’s guidelines as provided for in Articles 2, 9.3 and 20 of the APC’s constitution not to undermine democratic procedures or principle in the internal affairs of the party.
The claimant, therefore, sought an order of injunction restraining APC and Yilwatda from forwarding Lawan’s name to INEC as consensus candidate of the party to have been lawfully nominated as candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
He also sought an order restraining INEC from accepting or publishing Lawan’s name “over the flawed primary election of the 1st defendant for Yobe North Senatorial District primary election that took place on the 18th of May, 2026.”
He equally sought an order, compelling the 1st, 2nd and 4th defendants to conduct a fresh primary election for the senatorial district or to recognise him as the duly nominated candidate of the party in the primary election.
Kafayos further prayed the court for an order directing APC, Yilwatda and Lawan to jointly and severally pay him the sum of N50 million as aggravated and exemplary damages for his wrongful exclusion as aspirant in the poll contrary to statutory provision, Electoral Act, 2026 and the party’s constitution.
Kafayos, in the affidavit he deposed to, said as a financial member of APC vying to represent his people in the 2027 election as senator, he duly indicated his interest by procuring the party’s Expression of Interest (EoI) Form.
He said upon completion of the form, same was duly returned and acknowledged by the party on May 6.
He said subsequently the party organised a screening exercise for all intended aspirant that had successfully submitted their EoI Forms. He said he was successfully cleared by the APC’s Screening Committee as one of the aspirants for the primary election scheduled for May 18.
According to him, “on May 18, after waiting for many hours, the election committee of the 1st defendant appeared at the Yobe North Senatorial District primary election venue at Government lodge Gashua Yobe at about 3.25pm and without any prior notice or negotiation to announce that only the 3rd defendant had been cleared.”
He alleged that they informed him that he had been disqualified from the election contrary to his constitutional right and the provision of the Electoral laws and regulation set out by INEC.
He said the unprecedented situation caused serious pandemonium among the voters who were fed up with Lawan representing them in the Senate. He said the voters started chanting his nickname, “Iroko” “Iroko” “Iroko” as their candidate for Senate.
He alleged that members of the electoral committee, with the support of Lawan, used some officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to fire teargas at the venue of the primary election to disperse the crowd of voters gathered for the direct primary election at Gashua, Yobe.
He said he knew there was no direct primary or consensus election conducted at the designated venue at Gashua, Yobe May 18, since all voters were dispersed by the Nigeria Police Force teargas.
He alleged that he later saw on social media that the committee had left the neutral venue ground at government’s lodge, Gashua scheduled for the election and moved to Lawan’s private residence at Gashua in Yobe where about seven persons affirmed Lawan as APC’s candidate for the senatorial district.
He said this was at the detriment of the party’s internal democratic procedures and compliance with the electoral guidelines of INEC. He said photographs of Lawan’s affirmation by either six or seven persons at his private residence in Gashua on May 18 were copied from his Redmi A5 handset and printed from his HP Laser-Jet P-2015 printer and attached as Exhibits “G”.
The aspirant said he exhausted all efforts by him to seek internal administrative procedure to register his grievances to the party through its state’s Chairman Appeal Committee, Damaturu in Yobe by submitting his complaint in writing dated May 18.
Kafayos said it would be in the interest of justice to set aside the flawed poll to allow a fresh election as a result of absence of transparency and breach of internal democratic process. Alternatively, the aggrieved aspirant prayed that INEC should disqualify Lawan and declare him the candidate duly elected for the senatorial district.
Lawan, in his preliminary objection filed by his lawyer, Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit, urging the court to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.
Giving four ground-argument, Aruwa argued that the court lacked the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the case, having been filed in the Abuja division instead of the Damaturu division of the court. He described the act as “an abuse of processes.”
He stated that Kafayos admitted in his affidavit in support of the suit that he was informed on May 18 that only Lawan was cleared by the APC to contest in the election.
The lawyer submitted that Kafayos’ Exhibits “D” and “F” attached to his suit were conflicting pieces of evidence put forward and did not meet the legal criteria to prove that he was cleared to contest in the said election.
He argued that the questions raised in his suit that he was deliberately excluded or suppressed from lawful participation in the poll meant that Kafayos was not an aspirant in the APC’s senatorial district election. He said the plaintiff, therefore, lacked the legal right to challenge his nomination.
Besides, Aruwa submitted that the court did not have the jurisdiction to decide on the question regarding how the party nominated its candidate or who the party should sponsor as a candidate in the 2027 poll.
According to him, “these are matters within domestic affairs of the 1st defendant (APC) which are non-justiciable hence this honourable court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain.”
The APC also corroborated Aruwa’s argument in a preliminary objection filed by Adedayo Adedeji, SAN.
Adedeji prayed the court to dismiss the suit for being fundamentally defective and for vesting no jurisdiction on the court.
Adedeji equally argued that the suit is statute-barred as it was filed outside the mandatory 14-day period prescribed by Section 285(14) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Rule 9 of the Practice Directions, 2022.
Specifically, he said the cause of action regarding Kafayos’ eligibility accrued on May 11, the date the party published the screening results and notified the claimant of his status as being “Not Cleared.”
“By virtue of Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), every preelection matter shall be filed not later than 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the event, decision, or action complained of.”
“Consequently, the constitutionally mandated window for the claimant to challenge his disqualification expired on 25th May 2026,” the lawyer submitted.
He, therefore, held that Kafayos lacked the locus standi to institute or maintain the action, among other arguments.
Yilwatda, in his counter affidavit deposed to by Lovelyn Donatus, a legal officer in the Legal Services Department of APC, averred that the party duly constituted the Primary Election Committee that conducted the Senatorial poll.
He said the party also constituted a Screening Committee charged with the responsibility of screening and clearing the aspirants for the contest.
He said the averments in Paragraph 12 of Kafayos’ affidavit were vague, unsubstantiated and of no evidential value to his case, particularly as the purported video referred to therein was neither exhibited nor attached to the affidavit.
Yilwatda maintained that Kafayos did not participate in the Yobe North Senatorial Primary Election, having been disqualified by the duly constituted Screening Committee of the party.
“Consequently, the plaintiff lacks the requisite locus standi to institute or maintain this action in respect of the said primary election,” he said, urging the court to dismiss it.
Lawan and APC, in their separate counter affidavits, also urged the court to discountenance Kafayos’ reliefs.
Justice Ibrahim fixed Sept. 18 for hearing in the case.
