Barely one week to the February 25 National Assembly elections, the Supreme Court has affirmed Austin Asema Achado as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Gwer-East/Gwer-West Federal Constituency of Benue State.
A 5-man panel of Justices of the Apex Court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, dismissed an appeal brought by David Nongo against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered by Justice Obiora Atuegwu Egwuatu on October 31, 2022.
The appellant in the suit marked: SC/CV/74/2023 had asked the Supreme Court to nullify the judgment of the lower courts, which declared Achado as the lawful candidate of APC for the Gwer-East/Gwer-West Federal Constituency in the coming election.
Nongo predicated his appeal at the Apex Court on several grounds, including that the two lower courts carried out a miscarriage of justice against him in their findings and judgments.
He asserted that the two courts erred in the ways and manners they interpreted electoral issues raised against the primary election that produced his opponent as the APC flagbearer for the Federal Constituency.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the appellant on the ground of his appeal, having found no traces of injustice in the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, both in Abuja.
The Apex Court, in its judgment, dismissed the appeal in its entirety for lack of merit and awarded the sum of N5 million cost against the appellant to be paid to the respondents as cost of litigation.
The respondents in the suit to benefit from the N5 million cost are Austin Asema Achado, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
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