HON. EMMANUEL BWACHA V. HON. JOEL DANLAMI IKENYA INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC) PEOPLES’DEMOCRATIC PARTY

MOHAMMED JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The 1st respondent in this appeal was the plaintiff at the Federal High Court Kaduna where he filed his action against the appellant and the 2nd and3rd respondents as defendants in an originating summons posing the following question fordeterminations. “1. Whether in view of section 34of the Electoral Act, 2006 which require political parties wishing to substitute candidatesto give ‘cogent and verifiable’ reasons, the 2nd defendant can substitute the plaintiff’s name as a senatorial candidate for no reason at all.

Whether in view of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja dated 27 March 2007, wherein the Economic and Financial CrimesCommission’s list of ‘corrupt’candidates and the report of the administrative panel of inquiryotherwise called the Ayua panel were quashed, the 2nd defendant can rely on the list and report to substitute the plaintiff’s name with that of the 3rd defendant.”

The plaintiff/1st respondent then proceeded andcl…