April 18, (THEWILL) – The gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Senator Aisha Binani Dahiru, has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking a judicial review of INEC’s decision to void her declaration as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18 and the supplementary poll of April 15, 2023.
The application for leave to bring the application for judicial review was contained in an ex parte application filed on April 17.
Sued with the Commission were the PDP and its governorship candidate, Ahmadu Fintiri, listed as the first, second, and third defendants, respectively.
The application was brought pursuant to Order 34 Rules 1a, order 3(1) and 3(2) a, b, c, Order 6 of the Federal High Court (civil procedure rules) 2019, and Section 251 (1)q and r of the 1999 Constitution, as well as Section 149 and 152 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Senator Dahiru is contending that INEC has no power to cancel the declaration of a candidate as the winner of an election, adding that the power resides in the election tribunal, not INEC.
Binani maintained that after the completion of the vote in the supplementary governorship election of April 15, and the subsequent collation of same results, INEC declared her as the winner of the governorship election, and she was thereby returned as elected.
The Senator argued, “The only court with power on a declaration made from the conduct of an election is only the election petition tribunal set up by the 1999 Constitution.”
The applicant said pursuant to the declaration, any dissatisfied candidate ought to resort to the tribunal for redress, if any.
She faulted the cancellation of her declaration on April 16, based on some crisis caused by PDP and Fintiri, stressing that INEC has no powers to cancel or declare the declaration as being null and void.
“INEC, after the declaration of Senator Aisha Dahiru Ahmed as the winner, usurped the powers of the Election Petition Tribunal and declared the declaration null and void.
“The first respondent does not have the requisite powers to declare an election in which the winner has been declared null and void,” she argued.
Binani, through her lawyers led by Hussaini Zakariyau, SAN, submitted that a judicial review existed to enable the superior court checkmate the actions and decisions of inferior courts as well as the legislative and administrative arms of government, including agencies and public officers.
The applicant further submits that the INEC, being an agency of the government, can have its actions, records and decisions checked by the court and only a court can nullify the actions of an INEC official and not INEC itself.
Besides, Binani, alongside her party, the APC, is also seeking an order of Prohibition and Certiorari preventing the electoral umpire and its agents from taking any further steps towards the declaration of the winner of the election, pending the determination of her application for judicial review.
