Yobe North Senatorial Seat: Kafayos Seeks Court Order to Nullify Lawan’s Candidacy

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday reserved judgment in a suit seeking to nullify the emergence of former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District in Yobe State.

Justice Salim Ibrahim, in a brief ruling, said the date for the judgment would be communicated to the parties 24 hours before its delivery.

The judge made this known after lawyers representing the parties adopted their processes and presented arguments for and against the suit.

When the case was called, Francis Mgboh, counsel to the plaintiff, Hassan Kafayos, adopted their processes and urged the court to grant the reliefs sought.

Citing a previous Supreme Court decision, Mgboh argued that the apex court had made it clear that issues concerning the nomination of candidates for elections are matters governed by constitutional provisions.

The lawyer submitted that Lawan was never a candidate in the APC primary election held on May 18.
Mgboh, who stressed that the election was scheduled for May 18 and not May 20, argued that Lawan did not purchase a nomination form for the senatorial position.

“He actually not supposed to be on the list,” he said.
The lawyer further argued that the election was conducted under a repealed Act.

He, therefore, maintained that no valid election produced Lawan as the party’s senatorial candidate and urged the court to declare Kafayos the duly nominated candidate for the poll.

However, Adedayo Adedeji, SAN, who represented the APC, and Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, counsel to Lawan, disagreed with Mgboh’s submissions.

In his argument, Adedeji said a preliminary objection had been filed challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit.
The senior lawyer adopted his processes and urged the court to dismiss Kafayos’ suit with substantial costs.
He described the case as an abuse of court process, arguing that the plaintiff ought not to have instituted the suit.

“The court has no jurisdiction because the suit is statute barred, having been filed outside the time frame prescribed by the constitution,” he said.
Adedeji noted that the primary election was held in May, while the suit was filed long after the prescribed period.
He also urged the court to discountenance the document containing questions for the cross-examination of subpoenaed witnesses, describing it as incompetent.

Abdulalim Akeem, who represented the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, also urged the court to dismiss the suit, while Aruwa sought N100 million in costs against Kafayos.
Similarly, P. A. Bello, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), aligned himself with the arguments presented by Adedeji and Aruwa.

Bello argued that the case lacked merit and ought not to have been instituted in the first place. He urged the court to dismiss the suit with substantial costs.
After listening to the parties, Justice Ibrahim reserved judgment for a date to be communicated to their lawyers.
Background to the Suit
Kafayos, in an originating summons filed by Mgboh, sued the APC, Prof. Yilwatda, Lawan and INEC as the first to fourth defendants, respectively.

The plaintiff, an aggrieved aspirant in the May 18 APC primary election for Yobe North Senatorial District, asked the court to nullify Lawan’s emergence as the party’s candidate for the 2027 election.
Kafayos sought four reliefs from the court.

He sought a declaration that his alleged deliberate exclusion or suppression from participating in the May 18 senatorial primary, despite being a financial member of the APC, by the first and second defendants without reasonable cause, violated his right to freedom from discrimination.
He maintained that the alleged action violated Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution.

He also argued that the defendants’ actions breached Sections 84, 85, 86 and 87 of the Electoral Act, 2026, and violated the APC’s guidelines under Articles 2, 9.3 and 20 of the party’s constitution, which he said were intended to protect democratic procedures and principles in the party’s internal affairs.

The claimant consequently sought an injunction restraining the APC and Yilwatda from forwarding Lawan’s name to INEC as the party’s consensus candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
He also asked the court to restrain INEC from accepting or publishing Lawan’s name over what he described as a flawed primary election conducted by the APC for the senatorial district on May 18, 2026.

In addition, he sought an order compelling the first, second and fourth defendants to conduct a fresh primary election for the district or recognise him as the party’s duly nominated candidate.

Kafayos further asked the court to order the APC, Yilwatda and Lawan to jointly and severally pay him N50 million in aggravated and exemplary damages for his alleged wrongful exclusion from the primary election, contrary to statutory provisions, the Electoral Act, 2026, and the party’s constitution.
Kafayos’ Allegations

In his affidavit, Kafayos stated that, as a financial member of the APC seeking to represent his people in the Senate in the 2027 election, he had indicated his interest by purchasing the party’s Expression of Interest (EoI) form.
He said he completed and returned the form, which the party acknowledged on May 6.

According to him, the party subsequently organised a screening exercise for all aspirants who had successfully submitted their EoI forms.

He maintained that the APC Screening Committee cleared him to participate in the primary election scheduled for May 18.

Kafayos alleged that on May 18, after waiting for several hours, the election committee of the first defendant arrived at the primary election venue at the Government Lodge in Gashua, Yobe State, at about 3:25 p.m.
He claimed that, without prior notice or negotiation, the committee announced that only the third defendant, Lawan, had been cleared to participate.
He alleged that the committee informed him that he had been disqualified from the election, contrary to his constitutional rights and the provisions of electoral laws and regulations established by INEC.

According to him, the development caused serious pandemonium among voters, whom he claimed were dissatisfied with Lawan’s continued representation of the district in the Senate.

He said the voters began chanting his nickname, “Iroko,” repeatedly as their preferred candidate for the Senate.
Kafayos further alleged that members of the electoral committee, with Lawan’s support, used officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to fire tear gas at the venue to disperse voters gathered for the direct primary election in Gashua.

He maintained that no direct or consensus primary election took place at the designated venue in Gashua on May 18 because the police dispersed the voters with tear gas.

He alleged that he later saw on social media that the committee had left the designated election venue at the Government Lodge in Gashua and moved to Lawan’s private residence in the town.
According to him, about seven persons affirmed Lawan as the APC’s candidate for the senatorial district at the private residence.

He said the alleged action undermined the party’s internal democratic procedures and compliance with INEC’s electoral guidelines.

Kafayos stated that photographs showing Lawan’s affirmation by either six or seven persons at his private residence in Gashua on May 18 were copied from his Redmi A5 handset, printed using his HP LaserJet P-2015 printer and attached to the suit as Exhibit “G”.

The aspirant said he had exhausted all available internal administrative procedures to register his grievances with the party.

He stated that he submitted a written complaint dated May 18 to the APC State Chairman’s Appeal Committee in Damaturu, Yobe State.

Kafayos argued that setting aside the disputed primary election and conducting a fresh one would serve the interest of justice, given what he described as a lack of transparency and a breach of internal democratic processes.

Alternatively, he urged the court to direct INEC to disqualify Lawan and declare him the duly elected candidate for the senatorial district.

Lawan, APC Challenge Court’s Jurisdiction
However, Lawan, the APC and Yilwatda urged the court to dismiss the suit through their separate legal processes.
In his preliminary objection, Lawan challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case and urged it to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction.
The APC also supported Aruwa’s position through a preliminary objection filed by Adedeji, SAN.

Adedeji urged the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that it was fundamentally defective and did not confer jurisdiction on the court.

He further maintained that the suit was statute-barred because it was filed outside the mandatory 14-day period prescribed by Section 285(14) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Rule 9 of the Practice Directions, 2022.
In his counter-affidavit, deposed to by Lovelyn Donatus, a legal officer in the APC’s Legal Services Department, Yilwatda maintained that the party had duly constituted the Primary Election Committee that conducted the senatorial poll.

The court has reserved judgment, with the date to be communicated to the parties through their lawyers.