The Supreme Court is to deliver judgment on Friday in the legal battle over the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jigawa.

A five-member panel of justices led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun fixed the date for judgment after taking arguments from parties in the appeal filed by Farouk Adamu Aliyu, former minority leader of the House of Representatives and the cross-appeal by Deputy Governor Umar Namadi.

Mr Namadi, through his counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, had won the legal battle at the Dutse Division of the Federal High Court and the Kano Division of the Court of Appeal.

But Mr Aliyu is, by his appeal marked SC/1453/2022, challenging the November 4, 2022 judgment by the appellate court, which dismissed his earlier appeal and upheld Namadi’s election as the governorship candidate of the APC in Jigawa.

A three-member panel presided over by Justice Ita Mbaba in the November 4 judgment unanimously dismissed Mr Aliyu’s appeal against the September 13, 2022 judgement by Justice Hassan Dikko of the Dutse Division of the Federal High Court for lacking in merit.

Mr Dikko had, in the judgment, held, among others, that Mr Aliyu lacked the locus standi to sue and added that he failed to prove his case with credible evidence.

However, in the cross-appeal filed by Lateef Fagbemi, Mr Namadi is challenging a portion of the Court of Appeal judgment which upturned the trial court’s decision that Aliyu lacked locus standi to have filed the suit which did not qualify as a pre-election case.

Adopting his client’s brief on Wednesday, Mr Fagbemi urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal by Mr Aliyu and allow his client’s cross-appeal.

Mr Fagbemi argued that the Appeal Court was wrong to have exercised jurisdiction over Aliyu’s appeal, which arose “from an action improperly constituted.”

The lawyer to Mr Aliyu, Onyechi Ikpeazu, argued otherwise and prayed the court to allow his client’s appeal. 

(NAN)