Onimisi Alao
Yola – The Yola Division of the Court of Appeal has reinstated Senator Aishatu Ahmed, aka Binani, as the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State.
The Appeal Court on Thursday set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, which last month voided the APC primary in May and declared the APC had no validly elected candidate.
The Appeal Court, in an unanimous judgment Thursday morning, dismissed the appeals by the APC and Nuhu Ribadu, who are two of the three appellants in the case asking for a fresh primary.
The Court upheld the appeal of Binani who sought reinstatement.
Ribadu, who instituted the initial High Court case, prayed the court to order a fresh election from which Binani should be excluded while the APC was particular about a fresh election for an opportunity to elect a candidate so that the party will participate in the 2023 governorship election.
In its judgement last month, the High Court disappointed all the three parties, prompting them to go to the Court of Appeal which at its Thursday sitting in Yola, dismissed the verdict of the lower court and upheld Binani’s candidacy.
All the members of the three-man pre-election zonal panel of the Appeal Court in the Thursday sitting concurred with the lead judgement of Justice Tani Yusuf, who ordered the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to accept Binani as the elected governorship candidate of the APC in Adamawa State for the 2023 general election.
