Taraba: Federal High Court disqualifies APC governorship candidate

EMMANUEL AWARI, Jalingo

The Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Taraba State, Sani Abubakar Danladi, was on Wednesday disqualified from participating in the election billed for Saturday, March 9 by the Federal High Court sitting in Jalingo.

Danladi was disqualified on alleged falsification of age in the documents he supplied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Danladi, a former Acting Governor of the state, had won the APC party primaries, defeating nine other aspirants who contested with him.

The Presiding Judge Justice Stephen Pam said the APC Candidate lied about his age, adding that the date of birth 14th February 1968 is in conflict with his date of birth contained in the West African Senior School Certificate submitted to INEC, which indicates that the APC candidate was born on 3rd April 1977.

“That the first Defendant ( Abubakar Danladi) is hereby disqualified from contesting election as the candidate of the All Progressive Congress in the  Governorship Elections slated for  9th March 2019 or any subsequent date to be slated on ground  that the information contained in the affidavit in support of the APC Candidate personal particulars in the INEC Form CF 001 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission as his age is false”.

The judgment restrained INEC from recognising, accepting or treating the APC Candidate as the Candidate of APC in the coming Governorship Election scheduled for 9th March 2019.

” The Governorship Candidate, Sani Abubakar Danladi who is the  first Defendant is  hereby prohibited from parading himself as the Candidate of the All Progressive Congress, been the Second Defendant in the coming Election slated for 9th March 2019 or any subsequent date to be slated”, he said.

He further ordered that no order is made as to any cost.

Reacting to the judgment, the state APC chairman,  Barr. Tukur El -Sudi issued a press statement saying that the same issue on declaration of age was trashed out at the Court of Appeal and wondered why same issue be brought up again.

“There are legal process involved in the substitution of Candidate by INEC and therefore, a court judgment does not automatically translate to disqualification to contest an election”.

“The case was filled by some unknown persons parading themselves as concerned citizens claiming that there were discrepancies in the declaration of age as contained in Sani Abubakar Danladi Senior School Certificate and his declaration of age in the year 2000”, he said.

He called on law abiding citizens and members of the Party throughout the State to remain calm and disregard any issue regarding the eligibility of the APC Governorship candidate to contest 9th March 2019 Election.

” Legal steps have already commenced to set aside this mischievous judgment which we view as another desperate attempt by agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the State Government to escape defeat on coming Governorship Election slated for 9th March 2019”.

” All APC members are hereby called upon to continue with their campaign and preparations towards the election, Agents are also directed to ensure that they fully accompany all sensitive materials and ensure their distribution to all designated voting areas”, he added.

It would be recalled that Chairman of the APC governorship primary election for Taraba, Sen. Emmanuel Ocheja, while declaring the results at the Fast Track Hotel in Jalingo in the early hours of Wednesday, said Danladi scored 60,629 votes out of the total of 107,387 votes cast across the 16 local government areas of the state.

He said that a former minister Joel Ikenya scored 11,772 votes, while former Acting Gov. Garba Umar, scored 5,504 votes.

Others were Prof. Sani  Yahya, 7,299 votes; the TUC President Bobboi Kaigama, 5,530; Aliyu Umar 4,638; while Ezekiel Afukunyo scored 2,811 votes. The chairman said Chief David Kente scored 5, 549 votes, while Ibrahim Tumba and Kabiru Dodo received 1,828 and 1, 783 votes.

Eight out of the 10 contestants had on Tuesday protested over the conduct of the party primaries.

One of the contestants in the primaries, Joel Ikenya, said the result of the purported governorship primary conducted in the state cannot stand, describing it as a daylight robbery. Ikenya said the committee sent to conduct the election in Taraba computed the result in the comfort of their hotel rooms in Jalingo.

He noted that the APC, through its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, had urged all the aspirants in Taraba to work together to take over power in the state, adding that the national leadership of the party would not accept the current result. He explained that in most parts of the state, the election did not hold but results were computed, adding that only the agent of the acclaimed winner, Alhaji Sani Danladi Abubakar, signed the results.

“The APC as a party knows that if they want to win the election in Taraba they will field a candidate that will win the election. They will look at the character of the person first before handing him the ticket. I don’t want to speak much about the issue because I believe the appeal committee set up to look into the issue arising from the primaries in Taraba will look at the complaints and address them based on their merits.

“I have submitted my complaint before the committee and I will wait until the committee decides on the issue because the APC still remains the party to beat in Taraba when the right thing is done. But like I said earlier, this daylight robbery which will not stand and we won’t allow it to stand”, he said.

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