Photo: Sen Elisha Abbo, sacked from Senate.
Appeal Court sacks APC’s Adamawa North Sen. Elisha Abbo
The Court of Appeal on Monday, in Abuja, sacked All Progressives Congress (APC-Adamawa North) Sen. Elisha Abbo from the National Assembly.
Delivering judgment, a three-member panel presided over by Justice C.E. Nwosu-Iheme, which also had Justices M.I Sirajo and O.A Adegbhinde as members, ordered the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to Abbo by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC.)
The Court also ordered INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to Abbo’s opponent, Rev. Amos Yohanna of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the validly elected senator for the senatorial district.
According to the Court, based on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the senatorial election and its outcome was not conducted in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
It therefore deducted the invalid votes from the parties and found that Yohanna and PDP won the election by majority of lawful votes.
Periscope International reports that the Court of Appeal is the final arbiter in all National and State Assembly Election cases, which implies that Sen. Abbo automatically loses his seat and ceases to be a member of the 10th National Assembly.
It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Abbo as the winner of the Feb. 25 senatorial poll in the state.
Dissatisfied with the declaration, Yohana and the PDP filed a petition before the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Yola, Adamawa State challenging the return of Abbo.
The tribunal, in its judgment, dismissed Yohanna’s petition for lacking in merit.
Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s decision, the PDP’s candidate, through his counsel Johnson Usman, SAN approached the Appeal Court via appeal number CA/YL/EP/AD/SEN/06/2023.
