The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Nigeria, has dismissed an appeal brought before it by the Actions Peoples Party (APP) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seeking to annul the last governorship elections held in Bayelsa and Kogi states.
The appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/218/2020 challenges a February 21, 2020 judgment made by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, wherein she held that INEC was right to have excluded the candidates of the APP from the 2019 elections in both states. In her ruling, Justice Ojukwu stated that APP replaced its withdrawn candidates outside the statutory period of 45 days to the date of both elections in Nigeria.
The three-man panel of the court led by acting President, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem dismissed the appeal in line with order 11 Rule 5 of the Court of Appeal rules. This ruling was made shortly after hearing applications by parties interested in joining the case as respondents including Bayelsa state governor, Douye Diri, his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, their party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kogi state governor, Yahya Bello, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Attempt to Withdraw the Case
Prior to the court’s final judgment, counsel to the appellant, Obed Agu, drew the court’s attention to a motion aimed at withdrawing the appeal which was filed on April 14. Explaining to the court, Agu stated that his client (APP) was desirous of withdrawing the appeal in accordance to order 11 Rule 1 of the Court of Appeal rules 2015. While his application was not opposed by the counsel to INEC, Alhassan Umar SAN and those representing the other parties, they, however, called on the court to dismiss the case instead.
Pending Cases in Nigeria
The result of the November 2019 governorship elections in Kogi State, Nigeria, is still being contested with a petition by the PDP candidate, Musa Wada, currently being debated by the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
