Abacha drags PDP, INEC to court over unlawful substitution

Mohammed Abacha, the son of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, has sued the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and two others for alleged unlawful substitution of his name as the party’s governorship candidate in Kano State.

In a suit filed by his lawyers – Joshua Musa (SAN) and Reuben Atabo (SAN) – Abacha claimed to have won the May 25, 2022 governorship primary of the PDP in Kano State and accused the party and INEC of replacing his name with that of Sadiq Aminu Wali.

In the suit filed before the Kano Division of the Federal High Court, copies of which News Band sighted in Abuja, Abacha urged the court to, among others, compel INEC to recognise him as PDP’s lawful governorship candidate in Kano State and restrain the party and its state chairman, Shehu Sagagi, from further holding out Wali as the candidate. Wali and Sagagi are listed with INEC and PDP as defendants in the suit.

In a supporting affidavit, Abacha said he is a registered member of the PDP and was cleared to contest the party’s governorship primary after paying N21,500,000 (for the nomination and expression of interest forms and handling charge).

He said: “I scored 736 votes and was declared the winner,” adding that his name was reflected in the Certified True Copy (CTC) of INEC’s victorious aspirants as the winner of the primary election and governorship candidate of the PDP in Kano.

Abacha averred that he was surprised when, on July 22, 2022, INEC published the name of Wali as the PDP governorship candidate in Kano State and “left out my name, who won the primary election”.

The plaintiff alleged that Wali’s father, Ambassador Aminu Wali, who is a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), was “making frantic efforts to use his privileged position in the party to install his son, who scored zero at the primary election as the party’s governorship candidate”. The defendants are yet to respond to the suit.

Also, Abacha is praying the court to reject a suit challenging his eligibility to contest the last governorship primary of the PDP in Kano.

In the suit, the plaintiff, Jafar Bello, claimed, among others, that Abacha was not a valid member of the PDP and as such was not qualified to have participated in the primary and should not be allowed to participate in the 2023 election as the party’s candidate.

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