Lawyer: There’s no court verdict preventing Sani Danladi from holding public office

Ujah Ujah, lawyer to Sani Danladi, one of President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees, says there is no subsisting court judgement disqualifying his client from contesting an election or barring him from holding public office.

Ujah was reacting to online reports that Danladi was barred by the supreme court in 2019 from holding political office for 10 years over alleged certificate forgery.

In a statement on Saturday, Ujah said Danladi, who has served in several political offices, discharged his duties “without any record of blemish whatsoever”.

Ujah said the reports being circulated against his client are “baseless rumours pushed by some unpopular politicians from Taraba state”.

“It is a wanton remark unwittingly made in the absence of any proof or any court judgment indicting senator Sani Abubakar Danladi in this regard,” the statement reads.

Ujah said on page 20 of the supreme court’s judgment, Mary Peter-Odili, JSC (as she then was) wrote: “Learned Senior Counsel for the appellants had sought to lead the court to the earlier situation relating to the cause of action at the trial court by contending that the trial court itself had no jurisdiction to determine the matter in the first place if Section 285 CFRN is applicable since the cause of action arose on 25th October 2018 a point not disputed and the Originating Summons filed on 9th January 2017 which made the action filed 76 days after the accrued cause of action, instead of 14 days provided by Section 285 (9) of the Constitution”.

Ujah said based on the aforementioned apex court observation, Danladi applied to the federal high court in Jalingo to set aside its earlier decision because the court lacked the jurisdiction to have entertained the suit in the first place.

He said the court found merit in Danladi’s case and on October 15, 2021, set aside its earlier decision as being one given without jurisdiction.

The lawyer said dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, the PDP appealed against the case and “was equally dismissed by the court of appeal on 23/01/2023”. 

“Pained with the decision of the court of appeal, PDP further appealed to the supreme court via appeal no: SC/CV/168/2023 between PDP vs  INEC & 2 ors. However, the appeal was again dismissed,” he said. 

“Given all these facts, it is clear for the blind to see and audible for the deaf to hear that there is no subsisting judgment of any court in Nigeria disqualifying our client from either contesting an election or barring him from holding any public office,” Ujah added.