The Supreme Court has fixed judgment for February 17 in the dispute over who between Labaran Magaji and Shehu Tukur is the actual candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Nasarawa West Senatorial District in the forthcoming election.
A five-member panel of the court, led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, picked the date after lawyers to parties in the appeal marked: SC/CV/18/2023 made their submissions.
Ahmed Raji (SAN) who led the legal team of the appellant (Magaji) urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
While summarising the appellant’s case to the court, Raji said preparatory to the conduct of the APC primary to elect a candidate for the senatorial district, it conducted congresses for the purpose of electing delegates, who were to elect the candidate.
He said surprisingly, another delegates list was used for the primary, with the exclusion of the delegates that emerged from the congresses earlier conducted by the APC.
“They used people who were not actual delegates for the primary. The trial court agreed with the appellant, but the Court of Appeal disagreed, which is why we are here,” Raji said.
Lawyer to Tukur, Murtar Adekilekun urged the court to dismiss the appeal, querying the jurisdiction to hear the case.
Adekilekun argued that the subject matter of the case had to do with the selection of delegates, which is not justiciable, being issues constituting the party’s internal affairs.
He also faulted the mode of commencing the suit at the trial court.
Justice Kekere-Ekun, while adjourning for judgment, said the decision in the appeal heard (SC/CV/18/2023) shall be applied to the other two sister appeals marked: SC/CV/16/2023 and SC/CV/17/2023.