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Kaduna Assembly Bye-Election: Court Stops Swearing-In Of PDP’s Usman Alibaba

Confusion is trailing the Sabon Gari Constituency bye-election in Kaduna State, as a high court presided over by Justice K Dabo, has granted an order restraining the state House of Assembly from swearing-in Usman Alibaba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the new member representing the constituency in the House of Assembly.


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Confusion is trailing the Sabon Gari Constituency bye-election in Kaduna State, as a high court presided over by Justice K Dabo, has granted an order restraining the state House of Assembly from swearing-in Usman Alibaba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the new member representing the constituency in the assembly.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on June 20, declared Usman Alibaba as the winner of the bye-election held for the Sabon Gari constituency, having polled 9,113 votes to defeat the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Musa Musa who scored7,404 votes to come second.

However, shortly after the election, a group within the PDP called Restoration Group immediately filed a suit at the state high court asking it to stop the swearing-in of the new assembly member on the ground that he was not validly nominated by the party to stand for the election.

Their argument is that the Hassan Hyat-led State Working Committee of the PDP, was not eligible to conduct any primary that led to the emergence of the party’s House of Assembly candidate, since the congress that brought them to power was flawed by irregularities.

In the suit filed by one Usman Hassan and two others before Justice K Dabo of the Kaduna State High Court, the Restoration group prayed the court for an order of interim injunction restraining INEC and the Kaduna State House of Assembly from issuing a Certificate of Return or swearing-in by way of admittance of Usman Alibaba as the member representing Sabon Gari constituency, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion on notice.

Delivering judgement in the suit on Wednesday the court, however, granted the prayer and ordered the interim injunction restraining INEC and the Kaduna State House of Assembly from swearing-in Usman Alibaba as the new member representing Sabon Gari constituency.