Why APC Lost Senatorial Seat In Gombe

By Ayodele Oni

For failing to comply with guidelines for the conduct of party primaries, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) has lost one of the Senatorial seats it won during the February 25 election in Gombe State

APC had approached the apex court over the claim that no primary election was conducted and no candidate emerged to fly the party’s flag during the election.

The Supreme Court on Thursday in Abuja put a seal and nullified the purported participation of the APC in the February 25 Senatorial election in Gombe South Senatorial District.

The Apex Court kicked out APC and its purported candidate, Joshua Lidani out of the Senatorial contest on the ground that the party failed to conduct a primary election known to law for the purpose of candidate nomination.

Delivering judgment in an appeal brought before it by the APC, the Supreme Court held that the party murdered internal democracy in the ways and manners its primary election for Gombe South Senatorial candidate nomination was conducted.

Among others, the APC Primary Election Panel that conducted the primary election allocated the same figure to all the Senatorial aspirants that participated in the purported primary election result sheet.

In the same vein, the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitoring team, read in the open court confirmed that no primary election was conducted at the time the monitoring team left the venue due to the threat to lives but only heard that figures were allocated to all aspirants later.

Although the APC made spirited efforts to persuade the Justices, the persuasion was, however, rejected as the Apex Court upheld the concurrent findings of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal to the effect that the party did not comply with laws in the conduct of the purported primary election.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice John Inyang Okoro, the Supreme Court scolded APC for turning the head of internal democracy upside down.

Justice Okoro said primary election must be conducted in accordance with the laws, regulations and guidelines of political parties.

“It is crystal clear that the appellant (APC) did not do well in the instant case and the implication is that the party has no candidate in the last Senatorial election in the Gombe South Senatorial District.

“If they won the Senatorial election, too bad for it because it has no lawful candidate and if it lost in the election, the better for it.”

Justice Okoro subsequently dismissed the appeal by the APC