Justice Gabriel Kolawole of Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday struck out a suit seeking to remove Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, from office.
The dismissed motion on notice dated January 30, 2017 emanated from an earlier suit filed on January 27, 2015 by Senator Umaru Dahiru and Aliyu Abubakar Sanyinna.
The application was filed on the grounds that the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that produced Tambuwal as the party’s candidate for the 2015 governorship election was not validly conducted.
Dahiru and Sanyinna urged the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued Tambuwal and present it to Dahiru on the grounds that the senator was the lawfully elected candidate of the APC at the primary election.
The Supreme Court had in 2016 returned the case to the Federal High Court for fresh trial on the grounds that “there is life” in the case despite the conduct of the governorship election that produced Tambuwal.
The apex court had disagreed with Tambuwal in his claim that the case of the plaintiff challenging his nomination by APC had become “academic and hypothetical.”
However, sequel to the apex court’s order for retrial, Dahiru, through his counsel, Ikoro N. Ikoro, filed a motion on notice dated January 30, 2017, seeking the variation of his pleadings in the motion on notice.
Ruling on the application for amendment filed by the plaintiff, Justice Kolawole, apart from dismissing the application, equally struck out the motion on notice.
The court agreed with APC and Tambuwal that granting the application for amendment of the reliefs would change the “nature and character” of the case file which the Supreme Court remitted for retrial.
THE NATION
