The Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Elisha Abbo, has accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of being responsible for his removal from office. The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday nullified the election of Abbo, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially declared him the winner of the parliamentary election held on February 25th, 2023, but his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Amos Yohanna, contested the result and headed to court. The tribunal, however, dismissed Yohanna’s petition for lacking merit. The PDP’s candidate, through his counsel, Johnson Usman (SAN), approached the Appeal Court, which agreed with Usman that the results tendered clearly showed that there was no compliance with the Electoral Act, based on Section 137 of the Act. Consequently, the court deducted the invalid votes from the parties and found that Yohanna and the PDP won the election by a majority of lawful votes. The three-member panel, presided over by Justice C.E. Nwosu-Iheme, ordered INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to Yohanna as the validly elected lawmaker for the senatorial district.
In response to the court judgment, Abbo alleged that he and four other senators who worked against the emergence of Akpabio as Senate President had been targeted for removal from the Red Chamber through the court. Abbo specifically mentioned the Senator representing Abia North, Orji Uzor Kalu, as the next target for removal from the Senate. He expressed his surprise that, despite winning with an over 11,000-vote margin of victory over his closest opponent, Yohanna Amos Yohanna of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the election, the Appeal Court overturned his victory. Abbo appealed to his supporters to remain calm and vowed to recontest in 2027. He also called on the judiciary to be the last hope of the common man and ensure strict compliance with the Electoral Act.