Court orders INEC to accept Sani Noma as PDP candidate for Argungu Augie reps race. Sani Yakubu Noma, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Argungu/Augie Federal Constituency for the 2023 general elections, was ordered by a Federal High Court on Monday to accept and publicize his name. The PDP leadership’s change in the plaintiff’s name was declared invalid by the court as being illegal, illegitimate, and unconstitutional.
In a lawsuit filed against the PDP and others, Noma claimed that he ran in the PDP primary election for the Argungu/Augie Federal Constituency on May 25, 2022, and won after receiving the most votes.
He said that the PDP submitted the name of another person instead of his, one Garuba Argungu, who at the time was only running for governor of Kebbi State and lost.
Noma, through his attorney Mr. John Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN, filed a lawsuit against the PDP, Garuba, INEC, and other parties after becoming dissatisfied with the change made to his name on the INEC list.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice Baba Gana Ashigar determined that PDP had violated the law when the plaintiff’s name was substituted.
The substitute was declared invalid by Justice Ashigar for being against the law, illegitimate, and unconstitutional before it was set aside.
The Judge then issued an order directing the electoral commission to declare the plaintiff as the PDP’s legitimate candidate for the Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives election scheduled for February of the following year.
For the House of Representatives election, Justice Ashigar forbade PDP and INEC from recognizing, accepting, or listing any other name save that of the petitioner.
After receiving the original summons, PDP and Garba Argungu filed preliminary objections to the lawsuit, disputing the court’s authority to hear the matter.
However, Justice Ashigar rejected the preliminary objections to the plaintiff’s lawsuit and concurred with Usman SAN that they were unfounded, unjustified, and ridiculous.
The plaintiff’s case is meritorious, and the court should give the requested relief, the court affirmed all of the plaintiff’s arguments in considering the original summons through his counsel Usman, SAN.
The Judge then issued an order to INEC directing them to accept and publicize the plaintiff’s name as the PDP candidate for the Argungu/Augie Federal Constituency in the 2023 general elections.
