Governor Gaidam’s legal battles

People in the state are keen to know the possible outcome of the legal battles currently going on in both the conventional court and at the election tribunal regarding the eligibility of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam to contest the 2015 election which he has already won.Gaidam, who is former Yobe deputy governor, was sworn in as […]

People in the state are keen to know the possible outcome of the legal battles currently going on in both the conventional court and at the election tribunal regarding the eligibility of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam to contest the 2015 election which he has already won.
Gaidam, who is former Yobe deputy governor, was sworn in as Executive Governor in January 2009 following the death of Governor Mamman Ali in Florida, USA. He was again sworn in as democratically elected governor on May 29, 2011 and May 29. 2015.
Governor Ibrahim Gaidam dissolved his cabinet, on May 27, 2015 ahead of his inauguration as governor for another term.
The dissolution which took place after the last executive council meeting in Damaturu, also affected the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants and heads of non-statutory boards and parastatals.
But the governor reappointed the Attorney General and the Commissioner for Health as special assistants to avoid tampering with the areas of critical need.
Gaidam was sworn in as governor again on May 29, this year after which he travelled out of the state on May 31, 2015 and did not returned up to last Wednesday, when President Muhammadu Buhari was going to Niger and Chad, and Gaidam was on the entourage.
As at the time of filing in this report, there are three separate legal tussles over the Yobe State governorship. Two at the Federal High Court, Abuja, and the third is at the Yobe State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the April 11 governorship election in Yobe State, Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri, filed the election petition and one of the cases at the Federal High Court in Abuja, while Engr. Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja of the APC also filed a suit at the Federal High Court.
Maina Waziri is challenging the validity of Gaidam’s election on the bases of electoral malpractices, alleging severe inducement of the INEC resident electoral commissioner (REC) in the state three days to the election.
He is contesting the governor’s eligibility at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“I have not conceded defeat or congratulated Governor Ibrahim Gaidam for the simple reason that I have some disputes to settle with the result of the election,”  Maina Waziri, a former Minister of Police Affairs said.
 On his part, Engr. Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja is challenging Gaidam on the grounds that the school leaving certificate the governor presented to INEC was forged.
It was alleged that the APC cleared the way for Gaidam as his two opponents in the APC – Engr. Mustapha Maihaja and Alhaji Yahaya Muhammad – both of whom had obtained forms to contest alongside the governor, were compelled to slow down.
Muhammad alleged that the governor master-minded the plot to frustrate gubernatorial aspirants from participating at the party’s primaries.
“It surprised me to meet the party secretariat/office empty despite the ample notice we gave to the officials. I went to the party headquarters in Abuja to submit expression of interest and obtain my nomination form but they refused to attend to me,” he had said.
Maihaja also told newsmen that he was at both the state and national secretariats of the party to submit forms but lamented how both offices refused to attend to him.
In the forgery case against Gaidam, it was alleged that the governor presented a School Certificate dated December 1969 whereas there was no Borno State Government of Nigeria in existence in 1969 because Borno State was created on 3rd February 1976 and Yobe State was created out of Borno State 27 August 1991.
It was further alleged that there were no Local Government Education Authority (LGEA), in existence as at December 22, 1969 under the North- Eastern region which was the legal entity at that time.
The Yobe State governorship legal tussle, however, took a dramatic turn when Nkemjika Nkemjika, a researcher and public affairs analyst and Sheikh Musa, a politician from Yobe State, both brought an originating summons for a declaration that the two terms limit allowed Gaidam under the 1999 Constitution as democratically elected governor expired on May 29, 2015.
Nkemjika and Musa are asking for a declaration that Gaidam was not qualified to stand for election under any political party “having regards to the provisions of sections 180 (1) (b) and 180 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to stand for the 2015 Governorship Election in Yobe State either under the platform of the APC or any other political party.”