By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has faulted Friday’s judgement of the Kano Election Petition Tribunal which reportedly annulled the election of the member representing Sumaila/Takai Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Shamsudeen Dambazau on the grounds that neither the lawmaker nor his party, the All Progressives Congress APC had any case before the tribunal.

The tribunal had allegedly ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, to issue a certificate of return to Surajo Kanawa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the election.

Reacting to an online report of the judgment, the APC chieftain who did not want his name mentioned as he was not authorised to speak to the press on the issue noted that the PDP instituted a case against Abdulrahman Suleiman Kawu Ismaila and not Dambazau, explaining that a federal high court had earlier ruled against the candidacy of Ismaila and ordered INEC to withdraw his certificate of return and issue same to Dambazau.

“By implication, it was Kawu Ismaila that the PDP took to the tribunal. While the case was on, the federal high court ruled against his candidature and asked INEC to issue the certificate of return to Dambazau. In spite of that, Dambazau was never joined in the case. So, on what basis was the PDP still dealing with Kawu before the tribunal when he was no longer our candidate? Bit, you know the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Kawu teamed up with the PDP and then from what we have read, reportedly conceded defeat. So, tell me, are you now going to serve the judgment papers on Dambazau when he was never before the tribunal? So, that judgment is against a person who lost out as the candidate of the APC. As a party, we have not lost anything.

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“It is trite law that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. It will collapse. I believe the relevant departments in the party would look at the issue with a view to doing the needful. Up until this moment, he (Dambazau) did not even know of a tribunal case going on.

“It was a tribunal case ongoing between the sacked Hon. Kawu Sumaila and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, and Dambazau was already at that time at Federal High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court which categorically stated that Dambazau’s son was the authentic candidate of the APC.

“So, the tribunal judgement of Friday in Kano is between the PDP and a person who is not a candidate of the party but who went to concede in Court, in collaboration with the PDP. He felt that if he could not be in the House let nobody be there.

“The judgement has nothing to do with Shamsudeen Dambazau. His name is not stated in any of the documents as you can see.”

The APC chieftain advised Hon. Dambazau to “take a further step by setting his legal team in motion because it is an injustice for not informing him that a tribunal case was ongoing as the authentic candidate of the APC.

“I want to assure Dambazau’s supporters and the Nigerian youths in general that they have nothing to worry about and that his team is working hard to ensure that the mandate given to him is protected. So, let everyone, especially, Hon. Dambazzau’ constituents remain calm and resolute. He will not be distracted and all that he has set out to achieve in the House of Representatives will be achieved,” the party chieftain declared.

Vanguard