The Supreme Court has reserved ruling in the application for the review of the judgement which disqualified the governorship and the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara state in the 2019 general elections.
A five-member panel of justices presided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, on Tuesday after listening to the parties announced that a new date will be communicated to the parties.
The ex-governor Abdulazeez Yari faction of the APC, through their counsel, Robert Clarke (SAN) brought the application seeking a review of the consequential order of the apex court which voided the total votes polled by the APC in the election over the conduct of the October 3, 2018 primary of the party.
Clarke argued that consequential order denied the rights of fair-hearing to the APC and benefitted PDP which was not party to the appeal.
He said, “We are not challenging the judgement of the court but the consequential orders.”
But the counsel to the Senator Kabiru Marafa-led faction of the APC, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), asked the court to dismiss the application with punitive costs.
Citing the recent cases in Bayelsa and Imo states and Section 235 and 285 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999, Ozekhome argued that the decision of the Supreme Court is final and cannot be reviewed.
“This application made, after 10 months, after the judgement of the court is a gross abuse of court process,” he said.
Counsel to other members of the APC listed as 141 to 178 defendants, Abdullahi Haruna, and counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), T.M. Inuwa (SAN), said he has not filed any process in the matter.
In the Zamfara application, the APC faction believed to be aligned to former governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari are asking the Supreme Court to review its consequential judgement of May 25, 2019 which declared votes polled by the APC as wasted votes and ordered the swearing of the party with the highest lawful votes (PDP) as winners of the election.
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