The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a pre-election suit seeking to restrain Mr. Haruna Audi from parading himself as the All Progressives Congress, APC,candidate for the 2026 Bwari Area Council chairmanship election.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Emeka Nwite held that the suit, filed by Mr. Joshua Ishaku, was statute-barred as it was instituted outside the 14-day period allowed by Section 285(9) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
According to the judge, a pre-election matter must be filed within 14 days from when the cause of action occurred, not from when the plaintiff became aware of it.
“It is immaterial when the plaintiff got the information. What matters is the date the act was done, and time begins to run from that day,” Justice Nwite ruled.
The court agreed with the APC and Mr. Audi that the cause of action arose on June 30, when the party’s National Working Committee ratified the report of its Primary Election Appeal Committee and submitted Audi’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission as the duly nominated candidate.
The judge also noted that Mr. Ishaku had been invited by the appeal committee but failed to attend, making his claim of being denied a fair hearing untenable.
Ishaku, through his lawyer, Ogwu Onoja (SAN), had asked the court to nullify Audi’s nomination, arguing that the process violated the APC constitution and the Electoral Act. He also sought an order directing the APC to forward his name to INEC as the rightful candidate.
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However, Audi’s counsel, Mahmud Magaji (SAN), filed a preliminary objection urging the court to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that Ishaku’s claim was filed 24 days after the cause of action 10 days beyond the constitutional limit.
Agreeing with the defence, Justice Nwite held that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
“This suit is hereby dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” he ruled, adding that the plaintiff had “failed woefully to prove the allegations.”
The judge further described the suit as premature, noting that Ishaku did not exhaust the APC’s internal dispute resolution mechanism before heading to court.
The ruling effectively affirms Haruna Audi as the APC’s valid candidate for the 2026 Bwari Area Council chairmanship election.
