2027: Court upholds Wali's emergence as Yobe APC guber candidate, dismisses Maihaja's swimsuit

The Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu has dismissed a petition difficult the emergence of Alhaji Baba Mallam Wali because the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Yobe State for the 2027 normal election.

The court docket, presided over by Justice Fatima Murtala Amin, held that the case instituted by Engr. Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, one of many aspirants who contested the get together’s governorship ticket, was filed exterior the legally prescribed time.

Maihaja had approached the court docket to problem the conduct of the APC governorship main held on May 21, 2026, which produced Wali as winner with 236,711 votes.

In his petition, Maihaja alleged irregularities within the conduct of the first, together with over-voting and failure to adjust to the get together’s electoral pointers.

However, in its judgment delivered on Monday, November 9, 2026, the court docket upheld the preliminary objection that the swimsuit was statute-barred, having been instituted exterior the constitutionally prescribed interval.

The court docket additionally thought-about the substantive allegation of over-voting and held that the petitioner failed to determine his declare with credible proof.

It held that even when the motion had been filed inside time, it might nonetheless have failed on its deserves as a result of the allegation was not proved.

The court docket additional discovered materials contradictions and inconsistencies within the testimonies of the plaintiff’s witnesses, rendering their proof unreliable and inadequate to maintain the allegations.

In a press release signed by the APC candidate’s Press Secretary, Shuaibu Abdullahi, Wali recommended the court docket for its “painstaking consideration of the issues” and reaffirmed confidence within the judiciary as the last word guardian of justice and the rule of regulation.