Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada and his challenger in the 2011 governorship election Mr Jibrin Isah will on February 21, 2014 know their fate on who was the authentic candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the poll.
Isah, a governorship aspirant and alleged winner of the January 9, 2011 Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary in Kogi State, is seeking court order to nullify the nomination of Governor Wada and declare him the governor of the state.
Justice Mahmoud Mohammed of The Supreme Court fixed Friday February 21 to give final judgment in the legal battle, after parties in the suit had adopted their final briefs of argument.
Adopting his brief for Governor Wada, Chris Uche submitted that the appellant, based on section 141 of the Electoral Act 2010, could not be declared governor by virtue of his failure to participate in the December 3, 2011 governorship election.
He argued that the aborted primary election of January 2011, being relied upon by the appellant, was rightly cancelled by the PDP, a position that was supported by both counsel to the People’s Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
However, in his argument seeking nullification of Governor Wada’s election, counsel to Jubrin Isah, Wole Olanipekun, canvassed that the election of Governor Wada cannot stand in law because it was conducted against the judgment of a Supreme Court.
Isah had lost both at the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal which separately dismissed his suit on the ground that they lacked jurisdiction to entertain a concluded election matter and that the litigant also lacked ‘locus standi’, to institute the case.
