A five-man panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal erred in denying another governorship aspirant, Umaru Dahiru, the right to challenge Tambuwal’s emergence based on the ground that he has sufficient justifiable cause.
The Court of Appeal had ordered that Dahiru’s suit had been overtaken by event owing to the election of Tambuwal as governor.
In a unanimous decision of a lead judgment Justice Musa Mohammed and read by Justice Chima Nweza, the Supreme Court ruled that denying Dahiru a hearing amounted to allowing the murder of democracy.
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The apex court therefore ordered a Federal High Court in Abuja to retry the case on its merit and make decision as demanded by law.
On this score, the Federal High Court will now determine the matter on its merit as ordered by the Supreme Court.
Dahiru had challenged the conduct of the primary election that produced Tambuwal as the APC flagbearer on the ground that it was fraught with fraud because the original list of delegates for primary election was purportedly swap in favour of Tambuwal.