Nigerian remains on course for first directly elected female governor after Appeal Court ruling

NIGERIA remains on course to get its first directly elected female governor next year after the Federal Court of Appeal sitting on Yola restored Senator Aishatu Binani as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state.

In October, a federal high court in Yola nullified the APC primary that produced Senator Binani as the party’s governorship candidate for Adamawa. In its judgement, then, the court had declared that there would be no candidate for the APC in the state for the 2023 elections.

Senator Binani, the senator representing Adamawa central, defeated Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Jibrilla Bindow, former governor of the state, to win the primary held on May 26. Senator Binani polled 430 votes to beat Mr Bindow who had 103 votes and Mallam Ribadu, who secured 288 votes.

Aggrieved by the outcome of the election, Mallam Ribadu instituted a suit challenging Senator Binani’s victory. In his judgment in October, Abdulaziz Anka, the presiding judge, nullified the entire primary election, ruling that the process was not compliant with the 2022 Electoral Act, the Nigerian constitution and the APC guidelines.

Justice Anka said Senator Binani’s victory was in clear contravention of Section 85 of the Electoral Act because there was manifest over-voting. However, yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Yola, set  aside the judgement of the Federal High Court in Yola, which had nullified the candidature of Senator Binani of the APC as the governorship candidate of the party in the   state.

In their ruling, the three presiding judges, Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan, MO Bolaji and James Abodego set aside the judgment of the Yola court. They ordered that the name of Senator Dahiru be submitted to the Independent National Electoral  Commission (Inec) as the substantive candidate of the APC for the 2023 election in Adamawa State.

Also, the Appeal Court ordered that Senator Emmanuel Bwacha of the APC in  Taraba State whose candidature was equally quashed by the Federal High Court in Yola be reinstated. It directed Inec to include the name of Senator Bwacha in the governorship list of Taraba State.