Taraba: Court affirms Mustapha as CPC guber candidate

A Federal High Court sitting in Yola yesterday affirmed Barr. Muhammad Bello Mustapha as the Taraba State Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) gubernatorial candidate in the April general election. Justice Saleh Musa Shu’aibu while delivering judgement in a suit filed by Mustapha against the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against his substitution, warned the party against violating its order.

He ordered the INEC to recognize, accept and deal with Mustapha as the flag bearer of the CPC in the governorship election in Taraba State having emerged the winner of the January 12th and 13th (CPC) governorship primaries in the state. He also ordered the CPC to submit the name of Mustapha as the validly nominated governorship candidate to represent the party in the April, 2011 general elections.

Mohammad Bello Mustapha had alleged that he was first declared winner in the CPC governorship primary in Taraba State but was later substituted by his party for “being too poor to deliver the party in the state.”

Mustapha who named Chief Eziekiel Afukonyo, CPC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st, 2nd and the 3rd respondents respectively, had sought the court to restrain the INEC from recognizing Afukonyo as the CPC candidate in Taraba State for the April 2011 governorship elections.

It would be recalled that during the CPC Presidential campaign rally in Taraba held on March 10, the governorship flag was presented to a new entrant to the party, Ahmad Yusuf, who has since begun electioneering campaigns in Taraba State.

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