By Peter Duru, Makurdi

All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship aspirant, Prof. Terhemba Shija has appealed the recent judgement of the Court of Appeal which nullified the governorship primary election of the party and ordered a rerun in 11 out of the 23 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state.

Prof. Shija had dragged the party and its candidate to court seeking the nullification of the APC primary election which produced Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, on the grounds that the process was skewed.

The Justice Abdul Dogo-led trial court had early December dismissed the suit for lacking in merit.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, Prof. Shija approached the Court of Appeal; and in a lead judgment read by Justice Biobelle Georgewill, the appellate court held that the appellant, “was able to prove that there was no gubernatorial primary election conducted by the APC on May 27, 2022.”

It however held that Prof. Shija failed to prove that the APC didn’t hold a rerun governorship election on June 9th, 2022.

The court ordered that a rerun be held in the 11 LGA where the defendants had claimed that elections held on May 27, 2022 within two weeks. It also ordered the APC and its governorship candidate to pay Prof. Shija N2 million as damages.

The affected LGAs where the court ordered a rerun include Gboko, Gwer- East, Gwer-West, Guma, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka and Vandeikya.

Not satisfied with the ruling of the appellate court, Prof. Shija, Thursday approached the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling.

Counsel to Prof. Shija, Mr. Ken Ikonne who made this known to newsmen in Makurdi said he had also filed a stay of execution of the judgement pending the determination of the appeal.

He said, “we are challenging the aspect of the judgement which ordered a rerun in 11 LGAs because it was not in order and they did not ask for it. We have also filed a stay pending the determination of the appeal.”