APC Primary: Appeal Court Dismisses Suit Challenging Yahaya Bello’s Candidacy

a file photo of Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello.

 

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed by Michael Elokun and two others challenging the emergence of Mister Yahaya Bello as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 governorship election held in Kogi state.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Steven Adah on Thursday, the court held that the nomination of candidates is the duty of political parties and not that of members of any constituency.

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The three-man panel of the court further held that the appellants never contested the governorship primaries and therefore lacked the locus to challenge the nomination of Mister Bello as the candidate of the APC.

Justice Adah, while affirming the judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on the twentieth of March, 2018, said the appeal has become an academic exercise.

The appellants had asked a Federal High Court to declare that Governor Bello was not a qualified candidate having not been a registered voter in Kogi State.