| July 18, 2008 A Federal
High Court in Abuja , yesterday dismissed a suit filed by the
governorship candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) in
Sokoto State, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, to invalidate
the election of Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko.
The Court threw out the motion seeking to
disquilfy Wamakko for lack of jurisdiction.
DPP and its governorship candidate wanted
the court to invalidate the victory of Governor Wamakko in the
re-run election held in the state on the basis that he was not
qualified to participate in the said election since a Court of
Appeal sitting in Kaduna had held that he (Wamakko) was not
qualified to contest the said election.
The party argued that Wamakko was not
supposed to contest the re-run election as there was no
provision for fresh nomination as nomination had closed when
Wamakko got his nomination to participate in the election under
the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
They prayed the court to declare Wamakko's
election in the re-run election null and void since the Court of
Appeal had already held that he was not qualified to stand for
governorship election in the state.
But Justice Adamu Bello in his ruling on
the matter yesterday, said it had no jurisdiction to interpret
or review the judgement of a Court of Appeal, being a superior
court, saying that it was not a practice of the law.
He said such an invitation that a Federal
High Court should review the judgement of a higher court like
the Court of Appeal would lead to chaos and confusion and
described such an invitation as a dangerous one which must not
be honoured. He consequently struck it out.
Specifically, It would be recalled that
the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna had, in April, nullified
the election of Wamakko as governor of Sokoto State.
The court had ruled that Wamakko, as at
the time of the April 14, 2008 governorship election, was not
qualified to contest the election since he was a member of the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and had not been duly cleared
as a PDP member.
The court then directed the Speaker of the
Sokoto State House of Assembly to take over pending a fresh
election which should be held within 90 days. |
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