Abba Yusuf, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming 2019 governorship election in Kano, has hired a senior lawyer in a bid to save his disputed ticket.
On October 2, Mr Yusuf, a son in-law to former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, emerged winner of the PDP primaries after polling 2,421 votes to defeat his distant second, Jafar Sani-Bello, who got 1,258 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Mr Sani-Bello dragged Mr Yusuf to court, seeking to be declared the governorship candidate of the party as Mr Yusuf breached Section 8 (8) of the party constitution as amended.
The section requires that anybody who defected from the party and seeks to rejoin shall write to ward secretary of his intention to rejoin the party, which according to Mr Sani-Bello his opponent did not do.
Appearing for the first time before Justice A.T. Badamasi of Kano High Court 3 on Thursday, Mr Yusuf’s lawyer, Adegboyega Amomolo, SAN, moved an application for a motion to amended some processes before the court.
Mr Yusuf’s lawyer sought to amend the process on the premise that Mr Awomolo has taken charge as the new lead counsel.
Abdul Fagge, counsel to Mr Sani-Bello moved to respond to the motion through an oral application as he was only served a day to the court sitting.
While calling on the court to disregard the application for lack of “competence”, Mr Fagge stated that there were plethora of authorities which supported his argument.
He said the Kano High Court Rules 2014 does not contemplate the issue of changing lead counsel, and so the request to amend the process on that basis does not arise.
After a lengthy argument that lasted about two hours, the presiding judge adjourned the sitting and set December 6 for ruling on the application.
