Chairmanship aspirant in the recently concluded Taraba State congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Hadi Lau, has taken legal action over what he described as irregularities in the process that produced Alhaji Abubakar Bawa as the party’s state chairman.
Lau disclosed this while recently speaking with journalists in Jalingo, explaining that he filed the suit at the Federal High Court in the Taraba State capital on Thursday, shortly after Bawa was announced as the new chairman of the party in the state.
According to him, no valid state congress was conducted anywhere in Taraba, insisting that Bawa’s emergence did not follow the constitutional provisions and guidelines of the APC.
He also rejected claims that Bawa emerged through a consensus arrangement, maintaining that none of the chairmanship aspirants was consulted before the declaration was made.
Lau said he had actively campaigned across the state and purchased the official nomination form as advertised by the party’s national secretariat, in line with the APC constitution.
“APC advertise the chairmanship nomination form, I went and paid for the form, I proceeded to the national headquarters and collected receipt, I went to collect the nomination form, they asked us to wait, we waited till the day of election, that was when the SA political to the governor of Taraba state Hon. Josiah Sabo Kente sent us messages that we are asked to come to government house for a meeting.
“The meeting that day could not hold till the next day, while we were in the meeting, Governor Kefas was there, he spoke, the state APC chairman Barr. El-Suldi was there, he also spoke and they asked us to excuse the state caucus to deliberate, I left and nobody called me again, I did not see any congress or electoral committee that came into the state to conduct the exercise.
“Nobody called me, I was not issued any nomination form which I paid from the party, the next thing I head on the radio and social media was that Abubakar Bawa was declared the chairman of APC in Taraba state, I have no option as a law abiding citizen to approach the court of law to defend my wright. Am not fighting anybody, am fighting for my wright.
“I was not engaged in any meeting to deliberate on consensus candidate, I was not issued any nomination form which I paid for and am having my receipt with me, I did not see any electrical committee in the state and there was no venue communicated to me as a place where state congress is going to hold.”
Lau further alleged that, unlike in other states where the party set up appeal committees to handle complaints from aggrieved aspirants, Taraba had no such mechanism for contestants to lodge their grievances.
He explained that the absence of an appeal committee compelled him to seek legal redress.
According to Lau, his suit before the Federal High Court is aimed at addressing actions by the party which he said contradict Articles 20.3 and 20.4 of the APC constitution.
He is asking the court to compel the party to issue him the nomination form he paid for and to direct the APC to return to Taraba to conduct a fresh and transparent election for the state chairmanship in accordance with the party’s laid-down procedures.