PDP Reclaims Abuja Council Chairmanship From APC

ABUJA – A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) court has upheld the election of Hon. Christopher Maikalangu as chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Coun­cil (AMAC).

In a unanimous judgment, the three-man tribunal, in­cluding Hon. Justice S. B Bel­gore (chairman), Hon. Justice Yusuf Halilu (member 1), and Hon. Justice Jude O. Onwueg­buzie (member 2) dismissed the August 5 judgment of the FCT Area Council Election Tribu­nal, which declared Hon. Mur­tala Usman Karshi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election of February 12.

The justices said that the judgment of the lower tribunal was not only evil, but negates all the achievements recorded in Nigeria’s democracy.

While reading out the lead judgment in suit FCT/ ACEAT/AP/01/22, which had Maikalangu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as appellant and Murtala Karshi and three others as respondent, Hon. Justice Yusuf Halilu said the lower tribunal erred by ig­noring contradictory evidenc­es before it.

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The panel said the lower court did a hatchet job by de­claring Karshi winner of the election.

“It is not in doubt the APC as a party was faced with legal battles after the party prima­ries to nominate a flag bearer for the AMAC election held on 12th February 2022. It is equally not in doubt that the 1st respon­dent, Murtala Usman Karshi, was involved in the said alterca­tion, which eventually landed parties before the apex court of this land i.e Supreme Court of Nigeria, which eventually declared the 1st respondent as winner of the APC primary for AMAC election.

“We have seen the evidences supplied by both the appellant and the respondents to the lower tribunal. The witnesses listed by the APC as supervi­sors in the disputed polling units admitted that they were not polling unit agents. It has become critical for us to ask questions at this point on what the process of collating results connote.

“Can collation be done with­out polling units results? It is indeed a process of an election that votes are cast at polling units, results collated by elec­toral officers and results an­nounced to the hearing of all. If that is the case, who then is the proper person to be called in the event that there is a com­plaint anchored on wrongful collation of results? Is it the ward supervisor or a polling unit agent? The answer is a polling unit agent.