Juliet Buna
The supreme court has nullified the nomination of Emmanuel Bwacha as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Taraba state.
According to TheCable, five-member panel led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun delivered the judgment on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court affirmed the verdict of the federal high court which held that the APC did not conduct any valid governorship primary in Taraba State that produced Bwacha as governorship candidate.
On September 20, 2022 a federal high court in Jalingo, Taraba state, sacked Bwacha as the APC’s governorship candidate.
Bwacha’s sacking comes after a petition by one of the aspirants, David Sabo Kente.
Relying on the evidence before the court that no governorship primary was held in Taraba, Justice Simon Amobeda ordered a fresh primary within 14 days.
The judge also sacked Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, Senator representing Taraba South for defecting to the All Progressive Congress, APC, after winning his election in 2019 under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The judge also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to stop forthwith the recognition of Emmanuel Bwacha as the candidate of the party and that the current senator representing Taraba South in turn should desist from parading himself as the governorship candidate of the APC.
He argued that it is not possible for all the primary results to have the same handwriting while the returning officer declared that no primary was held in the state at the police headquarters due to security threats.
David Sabo Kente, one of the aspirants, had filed the suit against Bwacha’s candidature.
Justice Amobeda described as inappropriate, the alleged false declaration of results at the Danbaba Suntai Airport Jalingo before jetting out of the state via a private jet by the returning officer.
Reacting to the judgment, counsels for the APC and sacked candidate stated that they will study the judgment before either proceeding to the Appeal Court or submitting to a fresh primary
