Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has picked holes in the Federal High Court judgement which ordered an elected member of the House of Representatives in Yola North/Yola South/Girei to vacate his seat.
Justice Abdulaziz Anka had on Wednesday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return from the APC candidate, Abdulrauf Moddibo, who won election on 23rd of February and issue same to the runner-up in the election on grounds that the APC primary election was inconclusive.
Briefing journalists in Yola on Thursday, the party’s Legal Adviser, Shagnah Pwamaddi, said the ruling gave the plaintiff what he did not ask for while the suit was instituted after the 14 days stipulated by law.
The suit was filed by the incumbent member of the House of Representatives challenging the validity of the primary election.
“The court is not Father Christmas and we are all surprised that the consequential orders were awarded to the plaintiff in the suit was not even asked for”, he said.
“It is common knowledge that before the court you ask and request for reliefs and orders are given based on reliefs sought for by litigants or plaintiff”.
“This time around, we have seen consequential orders issued and they are not sought for by the plaintiff; this is indeed with due respect to the learned judge; we see this as a new invention in our jurisprudence,” Pwamaddi said.
Pwamaddi said Abdurrauf remained the duly elected representative as the party had filed an appeal case at the Court of Appeal, and was confident of victory.
He further argued that INEC was yet to issue Modibbo the Certificate of Return, and the court did ask INEC not to give Moddibo the certificate.
“So, INEC is at liberty to issue the certificate to him (Moddibo). To that extend, we are confident that victory is still ours,” said Pwamaddi.
