A source close to the case told SaharaReporters that Malami was now finalising plans to transfer the case to Abuja.
As more revelations of malpractice by Nigeria’s Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, comes to light, SaharaReporters has uncovered new information on how he is scheming to manipulate a Supreme Court ruling on the outcome of the Bali/Gassol Federal Constituency elections in Taraba State.
Abdulsalam Gambo Mubarak, Garba Hamman Julde and Ibrahim Na’awe were all contenders for the federal seat and contested the primaries of the All Progressives Congress keenly with Mubarak winning the primaries, Na’awe coming second place and Julde coming last place.
A bribe was, however, paid by Julde to the APC and his name was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission instead of Mubarak’s name.
This sparked the first legal battle as Mubarak filed a suit to challenge the misconduct by the APC in suit No FHC/JAL/CS/17/2018 at the Federal High Court in Jalingo.
The court in its ruling ordered the APC to submit Mubarak’s name to contest for the Bali/Gassol Federal Constituency seat because he was the original and legal winner of the primaries.
Julde, however, appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal in Yola, asking the court to allow him to contest the election and it was awarded in his favour, throwing out Mubarak’s case.
The latter, however, took the matter further to the Supreme Court, which set aside the ruling of the Court of Appeal and affirmed the initial judgment on June 3, 2019 after the National Assembly elections had been concluded.
Following the judgment, the Independent National Electoral Commission withdrew the certificate of return issued to Julde and issued it to Mubarak, prompting Julde to seek a review of the case before the apex court.
He claimed the Supreme Court ruling nullifying his election did not stipulate that his certificate of return be withdrawn and asked the court to compel INEC to reissue it to him.
Seeing that he would lose the case, Julde wrote the Supreme Court to withdraw his request for review of the judgment but the case was continued at Mubarak’s instance.
The Supreme Court affirmed its earlier ruling confirming Mubarak as the winner of the electoral seat and asked Julde to pay him N500,000 for wasting the court's time and abuse of court processes.
Following the conclusion of the case, Malami wrote an opinion to the court, saying that the certificate of return should be given instead to Julde, who is his neighbour in the sprawling suburb of Gwarimpa in Abuja.
Sensing that the AGF's illegal meddling would have an adverse impact on his already concluded case, Mubarak went back to the Federal High Court in Jalingo, asking the court to restrain INEC and the National Assembly from acting on Malami's opinion.
A source close to the case told SaharaReporters that Malami was now finalising plans to transfer the case to Abuja.
It was further gathered that he was planning to assign the case to one of his boys, who is a federal judge so that he can influence the case to favour Julde, his neighbour.
DOCUMENTS: Nigeria’s Attorney-General, Malami, Allegedly Manipulates Taraba Election Case to Favour Neighbo... by Sahara Reporters on Scribd