Court to deliver judgment in suit against Yahaya Bello’s senatorial candidacy Nov 19

Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 19 for judgment in a suit challenging the emergence of former Governor Yahaya Bello as the senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Kogi Central.

The judge fixed the date on Monday after lawyers in the suit adopted their final brief of arguments.

A senatorial aspirant of the APC in Kogi Central, Momoh Yusuf Obaro, had dragged the APC, Yahaya Bello and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, before the court claiming to be lawful winner of the May 18 primary election conducted by the party.

He prayed the court to declare him the candidate of the APC and that his name be forwarded to the electoral body as such.

The aspirant also requested the court to compel INEC to accept him as the Kogi Central candidate of the APC and publish same as required by law.

However, Yahaya Bello in response urged the court to dismiss the suit on several grounds.

Among others, the former governor claimed to have polled 72,399 votes at the primary election to emerge victorious while another contestant, Ibrahim Yakubu Adoke, came second with 319 votes and the plaintiff scored the least votes of 188 to come last.

Bello claimed that assertions put forward by the plaintiff were contrived and misleading and asked the court to reject them.

He argued that the suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/1085/2026 was without merit because it was not supported with affidavit as required by law.

After taking arguments from lawyers for and against, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo fixed November 19 to deliver judgment.