Court Rejects APC’s Request to Halt Kano Council Election

A court has dismissed the APC’s plea to stop the upcoming Kano council election, allowing the electoral process to continue as scheduled.

The All Progressive Congress’ (APC) request to prevent the State Independent Electoral Commission from holding the local government poll was denied by a federal high court in Kano on Wednesday.

The plaintiffs asked the court to grant an interim injunction to stop the conduct of the council elections across the 44 LGAs in a motion ex parte filed on September 20th before Justice Simon Amobeda by the APC and one Hon. Aminu Aliyu Tiga against the state electoral umpire, Kano State House of Assembly, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, and 11 other defendants.

In addition, the plaintiffs asked the court to grant an interim injunction, directing all parties to uphold the status quo and specifically stopping any further actions by the electoral body related to the planning of the Kano poll until after the motion on notice has been heard and decided.

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APC further requested permission from the court for the bailiff to serve KANSIEC, the State Assembly, and two more defendants with all suit proceedings via any employee or officer in the state attorney general’s office.

In response to the prayers of the APC, Justice Amobeda refused to issue the temporary injunction.

Nonetheless, the court allowed APC to notify KANSIEC and the other defendants of all proceedings.

Additionally, it set a five-day hearing period for the substantive application starting on the day the defendants received the court order and the original process.

The presiding judge postponed the hearing until October 4, 2024, promising to expedite the hearing and issuing a strong warning to all parties involved not to take any actions that would impede the hearing or delay the matter’s resolution.

Judge Ado Maaji of the state high court had issued an interim injunction prohibiting the APC, PDP, NNPP, and sixteen other recognized political parties from acting in a way that would interfere with KANSIEC’s statutory authority over the conduct of the council election before the APC was unable to thwart the election’s conduct.