The electoral fraud case which came up yesterday in High Court One, Lafia, was attended by supporters of Barrister Labaran Magaji, who came in their hundreds to hear the case.
BY RICHARD ABU, Nasarawa –
A Federal High Court In Lafia has adjourned to Friday July 22, for hearing on an electoral fraud suit brought before it by a Senatorial hopeful, Barrister Labaran Shuaibu Magaji.
Barr. Magaji is praying the court to nullify the result of the senatorial primary election conducted which allegedly declared Architect Shehu Tukur as the candidate of the APC for Nasarawa West Senatorial District.
In a suit number FHC/LA/11/2022 filed on his behalf by Barrister Ishaku Mudi Dikko among other lawyers, Labaran Magaji is alleging that he won the primary election with 174 votes casted by the delegates but the APC officials that conducted the election manipulated the result in favour of Tukur and is calling on the court to do justice by cancelling the invalid votes.
The electoral fraud case which came up yesterday in High Court One, Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital was attended by supporters of Barrister Labaran Magaji, who came in their hundreds to hear the case.
In his eloquent presentation, the lawyer representing the legal team for the plaintiff, Barr.Otto Ogu, informed the court that the parties in the matter were properly served and the Judge should go ahead to determine the case by its merit.
But out of the eleven defendants in the suit, only the Legal Adviser to the APC, Barr. Oboshi Ogu, who represented the second defendant and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was present in the court.
The lawyer to the defendants told the court that upon mention of the case, they were not properly served and called for adjournment to enable them file statements of defense and other motions.
The judge, Justice Nehizina Afolabiin, in her brief ruling stamped down the matter which commenced by 10 AM to 1PM to enable the defense team sort out themselves with the court registry.
When the court resumed by 1 PM, the legal team of the defendants could not organize themselves for defense and pleaded with the judge to adjourn the matter to a later date to give them the opportunity to file counter affidavits and memorandum of appearance for all the defendants.
Justice Afolabi, who was visibly not impressed with the laxity exhibited by counsels to the defense team warned them against grandstanding in the court.
The judge reminded them that the case is a pre-election matter that is time bound and would not tolerate unnecessary adjournments to kill time and rejected long adjournment as canvassed by layers to the defendants.
The case was therefore fixed for July 22, 2022 for further hearing.
