The eldest son of former Chief of Army Staff Muhammad Shamsudeen Bello Danbazau has won his House of Representatives suit against Siraju Idris Kanawa of PDP.
A Federal High Court in Kano struck out the PDP application filed against a lawmaker, representing Takai/Sumaila federal constituency of Kano State, Mohammad Shamsudeen Bello Danbazau for lack of merit.
Justice Lewis Allagoa, in his judgment held that the application filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Siraju Idris Kanawa seeking to unseat the sitting legislator and member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and son of former minister of interior, Ltn. General Abdulrahman Bello Zanbazau had already been determined by the apex court.
Justice Allagoa held that the lower court was incompetent to rule on the jurisdiction of the upper court and declared that the decision of the Supreme Court on the matter supersedes any other matter therein.
On the motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter, Justice Allagoa ruled that attempts to precede on the matter would amount to review of the judgments of the Appeal and Supreme Courts, which he described as a mere academic exercise.
The PDP candidate in Takai/Sumaila Federal constituency, Kanawa, in his originating summons, sought the court to determine whether a candidate, who did not participate in the conduct and process of February 23rd, 2019, National Assembly elections should be declared the winner of the election, pursuant to section 285 sub-section 13 of the constitution.
The plaintiff had also asked the court to declare the action of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the issuance of a certificate of return to Danbazau as null and void.
Subsequently, the PDP candidate wanted the court to declare him the rightful winner of the election, having secured the lawful votes.
In his counter-affidavit, counsel to INEC, (1st respondent) Hassan Aliyu had challenged the jurisdiction of the court to sit on a subject matter already heard and determined by both the court of Appeal and Supreme court while asking the court to strike out the PDP candidate’s application for lack of merit.
Similarly in their separate counter-arguments, counsels to Danbazau (3rd respondent) Nuraini Jimoh and APC (2nd respondent), Abdulafeez D. Khalid had described the plaintiff’s application as a mere academic exercise that will end in futility.
They also contended that having ventilated by the appellant and Apex courts, the argument of the plaintiff was devoid of potent credence to stand.
The legal battle on the Takai/Sumaila constituency started when a former special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on the House of Representatives, Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila won the seat on the platform of APC.
Sumaila who didn’t take part in the primaries that produced Danbazau as APC candidate was compensated with the House of Representative seat, having lost the Kano South senatorial seat to Kabiru Gaya.
Dissatisfied with the party’s mutual arrangement, Danbazau headed for a legal solution which went up to the Supreme Court.
The apex court ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return from Sumaila and hand it over to Danbazau who was declared the party’s candidate.
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