A High Court sitting in Kaduna State has restrained the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), from conducting the Kaduna Central Senatorial District primary.

This comes after some members of the APC on Tuesday protested at the party’s secretariat, over the disqualification of one of the senatorial aspirants for the Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, Uba Sani by the NWC.

The aggrieved members accused the Adams Oshiomole-led national working committee of deliberately attempting to manipulate the process to give way for an automatic ticket to the current senator representing the Kaduna Central zone, Shehu Sani.

Ruling on an ex-parte motion in a suit filed by Uba Sani, the acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Muhammadu Bello, ordered the APC, its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, INEC and Senator Shehu Sani to maintain the status-quo prior to October 2, 2018, when the APC National Working Committee unlawfully excluded Uba Sani and three other aspirants from the contest in favour of Shehu Sani.

In a motion brought pursuant to Order 15(1) and Order 36 of the High Court Civil Procedure Rules of Kaduna State, the court granted leave to issue and serve the writ of summons on the defendants.

The restraining order has been served on the APC at its national headquarters in Abuja.

Lawyer to Mr Uba Sani, Sule Shuaibu, explained that his client took the step to protect his democratic rights after exhausting the internal party grievance-redress processes.

According to him, “Upon becoming aware of his unlawful exclusion, Uba Sani wrote and submitted a letter of complaint to the national chairman, urging him to reverse the decision.

“He followed up with a letter to the Appeal Committee, stating that after fulfilling all the conditions for contesting the primary election, his unlawful exclusion should be set aside, and he be allowed to contest the primary election”.

He further explained that given the imminence of INEC’s deadline for the conclusion of primaries, “Uba Sani cannot sit on his right and allow the effluxion of time to extinguish his cause of action”.

The court, however, adjourned the matter to October 15, 2018. (Channels TV)

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