A former Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have prayed the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, to dismiss a suit seeking to void the May 18 Yobe North senatorial district primary election.

Mr Lawan and the APC, in a separate preliminary objection, told Justice Salim Ibrahim that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear and determine the suit.

Also, the APC’s National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, in his counter affidavit, stated that the plaintiff, Hassan Kafayos, lacked locus standi to institute the suit, having been disqualified from participating in the primary.

In the originating summons filed by his lawyer, Francis Mgboh, Mr Kafayos sued APC, Mr Yilwatda, Mr Lawan, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the first to fourth defendants, respectively.

The plaintiff, who was an aspirant in the poll, in his suit filed on May 29, sought four reliefs.

He sought a declaration that the deliberate exclusion or suppression of his lawful participation, as a financial member of APC, as an aspirant in the May 18 senatorial election by the 1st and 2nd defendants without any reasonable cause, breached his right of freedom from discrimination.

He said this is guaranteed by Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution.

He said the defendants’ action breached Sections 84, 85, 86 and 87 of the Electoral Act, 2026 and also violated the party’s guidelines as provided for in Articles 2, 9.3 and 20 of the APC’s constitution not to undermine democratic procedures or principles in the internal affairs of the party.

The claimant, therefore, sought an order of injunction restraining APC and Mr Yilwatda from forwarding Mr Lawan’s name to INEC as consensus candidate of the party to have been lawfully nominated as candidate for Yobe North senatorial district.

He also sought an order restraining INEC from accepting or publishing Mr Lawan’s name “over the flawed primary election of the first defendant for Yobe North senatorial district primary election that took place on the 18th of May, 2026.”

He also sought an order compelling the first, second and fourth defendants to conduct a fresh primary election for the senatorial district or to recognise him as the duly nominated candidate of the party in the primary election.

Mr Kafayos further prayed the court for an order directing the APC, and Messrs Yilwatda and Lawan to jointly and severally pay him the sum of N50 million as aggravated and exemplary damages for his wrongful exclusion as aspirant in the poll contrary to statutory provision, Electoral Act, 2026 and the party’s constitution.

Mr Kafayos, in the affidavit he deposed to, said that as a financial member of the APC vying to represent his people in the 2027 election as senator, he duly indicated his interest by procuring the party’s Expression of Interest (EoI) Form.

He said that upon completion, he duly returned the form, which the party acknowledged on May 6.

He said the party subsequently organised a screening exercise for all intended aspirants who had successfully submitted their EoI Forms.

He said the APC’s screening committee successfully cleared him as one of the aspirants for the primary election scheduled for May 18.

According to him, on May 18, after waiting for many hours, the election committee of the first defendant appeared at the Yobe North senatorial district primary election venue at Government Lodge, Gashua, Yobe, at about 3.25 p.m. and, without any prior notice or negotiation, announced that only the third defendant had been cleared.

He alleged that they informed him he had been disqualified from the election, contrary to his constitutional right and the electoral laws and regulations set out by INEC.

He said the unprecedented situation caused serious pandemonium among voters fed up with Mr Lawan representing them in the Senate.

He said voters started chanting his nickname, “Iroko,” “Iroko,” “Iroko,” as their Senate candidate.

He alleged that members of the electoral committee, with the support of Mr Lawan, used some officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to fire tear gas at the venue of the primary election to disperse the crowd of voters gathered for the direct primary election at Gashua, Yobe.

He said he knew there was no direct primary or consensus election conducted at the designated venue at Gashua, Yobe, on May 18, since the Nigeria Police Force tear gas dispersed all voters.

He alleged that he later saw on social media that the committee had left the neutral venue at the government’s lodge in Gashua, scheduled for the election, and moved to Mr Lawan’s private residence in Gashua, Yobe, where about seven people affirmed Mr Lawan as APC’s candidate for the senatorial district.

He said this was at the detriment of the party’s internal democratic procedures and compliance with the electoral guidelines of INEC.

He said photographs of Mr Lawan’s affirmation by either six or seven persons at his private residence in Gashua on May 18 were copied from his Redmi A5 handset and printed from his HP Laser-Jet P-2015 printer and attached as exhibits “G”.

The aspirant said he exhausted all efforts to seek internal administrative procedures to register his grievances with the party through its state chairman’s appeal committee, Damaturu, Yobe, by submitting a written complaint dated May 18.

Mr Kafayos said it would be in the interest of justice to set aside the flawed poll and allow a fresh election due to a lack of transparency and a breach of the internal democratic process.

Alternatively, the aggrieved aspirant prayed that INEC should disqualify Mr Lawan and declare him the candidate duly elected for the senatorial district.

Mr Lawan, through his lawyer, Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the suit, urging it to dismiss it for want of jurisdiction.

Giving four ground arguments, Mr Aruwa argued that the court lacked territorial jurisdiction to entertain the case, as it was filed in the Abuja division instead of the Damaturu division of the court.

He described the act as “an abuse of process.”

He stated that Mr Kafayos admitted in his affidavit in support of the suit that he was informed on May 18 that only Mr Lawan had been cleared by the APC to contest the election.

The lawyer submitted that Mr Kafayos’ exhibits “D” and “F” attached to his suit were conflicting pieces of evidence and did not meet the legal criteria to prove that he was cleared to contest the said election.

He argued that the questions raised in his suit that he was deliberately excluded or suppressed from lawful participation in the poll meant that Mr Kafayos was not an aspirant in the APC’s senatorial district election.

He said the plaintiff, therefore, lacked the legal right to challenge his nomination.

Besides, Mr Aruwa submitted that the court lacked jurisdiction to decide whether the party nominated its candidate or who it should sponsor as a candidate in the 2027 poll.

According to him, these are matters within the domestic affairs of the first defendant (APC) and are non-justiciable; hence, this honourable court lacks jurisdiction to entertain them.

The APC also corroborated Mr Aruwa’s argument in a preliminary objection filed by Adedayo Adedeji, SAN.

Mr Adedeji prayed the court to dismiss the suit as fundamentally defective and as vesting no jurisdiction in the court.

Mr Adedeji equally argued that the suit is statute-barred as it was filed outside the mandatory 14-day period prescribed by Section 285(14) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Rule 9 of the Practice Directions, 2022.

Specifically, he said the cause of action regarding Mr Kafayos’ eligibility accrued on May 11, the date the party published the screening results and notified the claimant of his status as being “Not Cleared.”

“By virtue of Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), every pre-election matter shall be filed not later than 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the event, decision, or action complained of.

“Consequently, the constitutionally mandated window for the claimant to challenge his disqualification expired on 25th May 2026,” the lawyer submitted.

He, therefore, held that Mr Kafayos lacked the locus standi to institute or maintain the action, among other arguments.

Mr Yilwatda, in his counter affidavit deposed to by Lovelyn Donatus, a legal officer in the legal services department of the APC, averred that the party duly constituted the primary election committee that conducted the senatorial poll.

He said the party also constituted a screening committee to screen and clear the aspirants for the contest.

He said the averments in Paragraph 12 of Mr Kafayos’ affidavit were vague, unsubstantiated and of no evidential value to his case, particularly as the purported video referred to therein was neither exhibited nor attached to the affidavit.

Mr Yilwatda maintained that Mr Kafayos did not participate in the Yobe North senatorial primary election, having been disqualified by the duly constituted screening committee of the party.

“Consequently, the plaintiff lacks the requisite locus standi to institute or maintain this action in respect of the said primary election,” he said, urging the court to dismiss it.

Mr Lawan and APC, in their separate counter-affidavits, also urged the court to discountenance Mr Kafayos’ reliefs.

Justice Ibrahim fixed September 18 for the hearing.

(NAN)