Appeal court sacks Abacha’s son as Kano PDP governorship candidate

The court of appeal sitting in Kano has sacked Mohammed Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, the late head of state, as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

The PDP held parallel governorship primaries in the state, one producing Abacha while Sadiq Wali was elected in the second exercise.

Wali was recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the governorship candidate and appeared in the commission’s final list of governorship candidates.

But Abacha instituted a suit against INEC as the first defendant, Wali as the second defendant, PDP as the third, and Wada Sagagi, Kano APC chairman, as the fourth defendant.

Following the suit, in December 2022, a federal high court in Kano affirmed Abacha as the rightful governorship candidate.

Abdullahi Liman, the presiding judge, nullified the primary that produced Wali and held that the lawful primary was the one which produced Abacha. The judge subsequently ordered INEC to recognise Abacha as the PDP governorship candidate for Kano state.

But the appellate court, on Friday, set aside the high court’s judgement and ordered that Wali should be recognised as the valid governorship candidate.

Delivering the unanimous judgement, the Usman Musale-led three-member panel held that Abacha had no locus standi to challenge the primary election that produced Wali since he never participated in the exercise.