The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday granted an application for substituted service of court processes on Ahmad Lawan, former Senate President in a suit challenging his emergence as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
Justice Salim Ibrahim granted the ex parte application after Hassan Kafayos, Francis Mgboh, counsel to the plaintiff, told the court that efforts by the court bailiff to personally serve Lawan had been unsuccessful.
Mgboh argued that the application became necessary because Lawan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Defence, had not been personally served with the court processes.
He asked the court to allow service through any adult working in the office of the committee chairman.
The court granted the application and adjourned the matter until July 20 for hearing.
The suit was filed by Kafayos, an APC aspirant, who is seeking to nullify the party’s Yobe North senatorial primary conducted on May 18, which produced Lawan as its candidate for the 2027 general election.
The claimant joined the APC, its National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, Lawan and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
Kafayos is asking the court to declare that his exclusion from the primary election violated his constitutional rights and breached provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 as well as the APC Constitution governing internal party democracy.
He is also seeking an order restraining the APC from forwarding Lawan’s name to INEC as the party’s candidate and asking the electoral commission not to accept or publish the nomination.
In addition, the plaintiff wants the court to compel the APC to conduct a fresh primary election for the Yobe North Senatorial District or, alternatively, declare him the validly nominated candidate.
Kafayos is also seeking N50 million in aggravated and exemplary damages over what he described as his wrongful exclusion from the primary election.
In an affidavit supporting the suit, the aspirant said he purchased and submitted the APC’s Expression of Interest form, participated in the party’s screening exercise and was cleared to contest the primary.
He alleged that on the day of the exercise, the party’s election committee informed him that he had been disqualified without prior notice and that only Lawan had been cleared to participate.
The claimant further alleged that no valid primary election was conducted at the designated venue in Gashua after security operatives dispersed party members.
He claimed that Lawan was subsequently affirmed by a small group of party members at his private residence, contrary to the APC’s guidelines and the Electoral Act.
Kafayos told the court he had exhausted the party’s internal dispute resolution process before approaching the court, maintaining that a fresh primary should be conducted in the interest of transparency and internal democracy.
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