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The Court of Appeal, Kaduna has set aside the judgment of a Kaduna Federal High Court which described as invalid the substitution of Senator Usman Albishir as gubernatorial candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in the April governorship election in Yobe State.
The Court of Appeal, Kaduna has set aside the judgment of a Kaduna Federal High Court which described as invalid the substitution of Senator Usman Albishir as gubernatorial candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in the April governorship election in Yobe State.
Delivering judgment yesterday in the appeal filed by the Yobe State Governor Senator Mamman Ali, Justice Amiru Sanusi of the Court of Appeal ruled that the judgment of the Federal High Court is struck out for lack of jurisdiction.
The Order Paper released by the Appeal Court states that 'the appeal succeeds and is hereby allowed. The judgment of the Federal High Court in suit No FHE/K/CS/42/2007 per Liman J. delivered on 19/3/2007 is hereby set aside. The suit is accordingly struck out for lack of jurisdiction".
The Director of Press to the Yobe State governor, Abdullahi Bego described the Appeal Court's ruling as a 'landmark judgment and one that helps the development of the law".
He said that the ruling vindicates the position of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in substituting the former Nguru senator with Mamman Ali as governorship candidate of the party in Yobe State, following the indictment of Albishir by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the White Paper of the Federal Government's Administrative Panel of Inquiry.
Governor Mamman Ali went to the Appeal Court to challenge the ruling of the Federal High Court, Kaduna on the grounds that the suit filed by Albishir was an abuse of court process because the matter was earlier heard by a Federal High Court of equal jurisdiction in Maiduguri, which struck out Albishir's prayers that his substitution be declared invalid.