Sen. Bala Mohammed, Shehu Aliyu’ Double Nominations Violate The New Electoral Act-PRP Guber Candidate

Yakubu Busari

The People Redemption Party (PRP) Gubernatorial Candidate for Bauchi State ,Barr. Ahmed Umar Farouk has disclosed that the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed and the running mate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alh.Shehu Aliyu Musa action has violated the new electoral act of  section 115 subsection 14 of 2023 which contravenes the law

Farouk stated this in Jos at the Appeal court premises saying, “we are here at court of appeal on preelection to challenge the INEC on the 2023 general elections. We filed this case at the Federal High Court in Bauchi challenging them for allowing the PDP Senator Bala Mohammed and the running mate of APC for violating the 2023 electoral act ,the election is going to be conducted under the 2023 act .

So we challenging the candidates of the PDP, APC for their double nominations among other issue ,”.

According to him,” it is to the knowledge of everybody that the candidate of the PDP contested for presidential primary election under the platform of the PDP but when he lost the election he then came back and ask the candidate holding the PDP ticket to withdrew and he was immediately replaced by him so we felt that the exercise is a violation of the electoral act and the section 115 (D) of the electoral act.

At this stage, it is clear that nobody is allowed to contest for two different offices in one election. We then felt that the office of president and that of the Governor are two different offices respectively”.

He slammed that one election circle is 2023, we felt that is against the spirit of the election and the electoral act 2023.

Farouk maintained that; “if it is an interparty affair because the new electoral act won’t talk about it . We are not challenging the party for the act they did but we are challenging INEC.

We are challenging INEC for accepting and publishing their names on the website We are not members of PDP , we can’t challenge the action of it. Since they’re internal affairs but because section 115 say ,n Nobody is allowed to contest for two offices that is why we feel that this is an opportunity to correct that area under the 2022 electoral act that needs an interpretation of the electoral act.

Umar Farouk emphasized that PRP is not a new party in Bauchi state, it won two House of Representatives seats in the 2019 general elections, There was a governorship candidate then, and I was privileged to be deputy governorship candidate, so the party had gained acceptance in the state   .

He advised that a private investigator should be conducted to unravel whether the party had the support of the general supporters. Farouk is optimistic about the landslide victory of PRP in Bauchi state.

According to him, as lawyers are ministers in the temple of justice,  so we have to help in deepening the law in Nigeria, this is not about personal interest but for the development of the rule of law. We want the judiciary to actually develop the law.

We are calling on the voters in Nigeria to actually vote for competence devoid of any sentiment attached and credibility and not on a party line. They should vote for the sound one that has the quality to deliver before they vote for them.

Even, the president of Nigeria who used to say “Sak” has now retrieved his words but saying vote for your conscience is the only telling you that the country needs people that can work to do the job not those who cannot the job and  that is my advice to the people.

The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP)  sued Bala Mohammed, Bauchi governor, over alleged double nomination and Alh.Shehu Aliyu Musa for violating the electoral offenses commission

On June 4, Mohammed was elected as the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 governorship election after a failed attempt at securing his party’s presidential ticket.

However, Ibrahim Kassim, secretary to the Bauchi state government, polled 655 votes to clinch the PDP governorship ticket on May 28.

Kassim had resigned as the SSG to contest the Bauchi governorship ticket in line with section 84(12) of the electoral act, but later withdrew from the race, citing “personal reasons”.

This medium gathered that  that Kashim stood as a proxy for Mohammed who was vying for the PDP presidential ticket at the time.

At the party’s presidential primary, the Bauchi governor finished in fifth position, securing only 20 votes, while former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar polled 371 votes to become the PDP presidential candidate.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1302, PRP is praying the court to void Mohammed’s candidacy in the forthcoming governorship election was dismissed for lack of merit

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP are also joined as defendants in the suit and the gubernatorial candidate appeal the judgment .

The PRP is contending that having participated as a candidate in the PDP presidential primary on May 28, and later as a candidate in the PDP’s governorship primary in Bauchi on June 4, Mohammed is in violation of section 177(c) of the constitution as well as sections 84(13) and 115(d) of the Electoral Act 2022.

The party wants the court to, among others, restrain INEC from recognising Mohammed as a candidate of the PDP, and to bar him from further parading himself as the PDP candidate for the governorship election.

In a supporting affidavit, Ahmed Farouk, the PRP governorship candidate in Bauchi, said no law allows a candidate to sign two nomination forms for presidential and governorship primaries “which are two constituencies, at the same time and in the same election period in the 2023 general election”.

“Where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of relevant laws in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue,” the affidavit reads.

In another suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1303, the PRP wants the court to disqualify Sodique Abubakar, a former chief of air staff, and Shehu Musa, as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), respectively.

The PRP argued that Musa violated the constitution and Electoral Act by allegedly participating in the house of representatives primary held by the APC on May 28, which he won and subsequently, in the governorship primary held on June 4, after which he was nominated as the party’s deputy governorship candidate.

Similarly, in another suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1304, the PRP is seeking an order of the court voiding the nomination of Haliru Jika as NNPP’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he was not a valid member of the NNPP when he was nominated as the party’s candidate.

Jika, who currently represents Bauchi central senatorial district, was said to have participated in the May 26 governorship primary of the APC in Bauchi which was won by Abubakar, but he later defected to the NNPP to pick the governorship ticket.