The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the election of the Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ishaku Elisha Abbo.
Abbo was elected in February 2023 under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
In 2019, Abbo was caught on camera assaulting Ms Osimibibra Warmate at a sex shop in Abuja. On 29th September 2020, a High Court of Federal Capital Territory ordered the lawmaker to pay N50 million damages over the incident that occurred in 2019.
On appeal by the senator, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision last August by the three-member panel led Justice Jamilu Tukur, affirmed the N50 million damages against him.
The Court of Appeal also awarded another N500,000 in favour of Warmate, and resolved all five issues raised in the appeal, against Abbo.
In the election matter, the Court of Appeal ruled on Monday in favour of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amos Yohanna.
Delivering judgement, the three-member panel, presided over by Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to Amos Yohanna as the duly elected lawmaker representing the area in the National Assembly.
The appellate court vacated the tribunal judgement, which had earlier affirmed Abbo as the winner of the senatorial election. The tribunal dismissed Yohanna’s petition for lacking in merit.
Not satisfied with the judgement of the tribunal, the PDP candidate, through his counsel Mr. Johnson Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, approached the Appeal Court.
The Court of Appeal on Monday agreed with Usman that, based on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the results tendered clearly showed that there was no compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court, thereafter, deducted the invalid votes from both parties and found that Yohanna and the PDP won the election by a majority of lawful votes.
Hours after the Appeal Court nullified his election on Monday, Abbo had claimed that five senators had been penciled for removal over their non-support of Godswill Akpabio’s senate presidency bid.
Abbo listed former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu among the five senators targeted for reprisal.
He described the judgement as a coup on democracy but urged his supporters to be calm.
He insisted that he won the election, claiming that he defeated the PDP candidate with a margin of 11,000 votes.
