The Northern Youth Assembly’s lawsuit, in which it accused Governor Bello Matawalle of lying, was postponed by the Federal High Court in Gusau on Thursday until October 31.
To allow the court to determine on the Action People’s Party (APP) plea to be added as the third claimant in the substantive matter, Justice Aminu Bappa-Aliyu deferred the hearing.
In the substantive lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Matawalle’s academic and birth certificates, which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in order to run for office in 2023, contained errors.
The case, earlier filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, was transferred to the Federal High Court in Gusau.
It was listed for mention on Oct. 4, and adjourned to Oct. 19, for further mention.
When the case came up on Oct 19, the judge again, adjourned the matter to Oct. 27, for definite hearing.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Mr Usman Ndaliman, Counsel to the APP drew the attention of the court to an application filed by his client seeking to be joined in the suit as claimant.
Nadaliman said his motion followed an application dated Oct. 20 and filed Oct. 21, before the court.
He said that the APP’s application was accompanied by an affidavit and a written address.
Counsel to Matawalle and three other respondents, acknowledged that they had been served with copies of the application.
The counsel did not object to the application, and the court, therefore adjourned to Monday, Oct. 31 to rule on the APP’s application.
Counsel to the first respondent, Matawalle, Ahmed Raji, SAN, however, told the court that he had filed a motion of preliminary objection on the matter.
He said that the “plaintiffs were not known to law” as they were not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as required by law.
The documents provided by the plaintiffs contained in suit number FHC/GS/CS/27/2022, claimed there were three different dates of birth submitted on three occasions to INEC by Matawalle between 2015 and 2022.
The petitioners claimed that the documents Matawalle presented to INEC for the 2015, 2019 and 2023 elections regarding his secondary school qualifications were also not the same.
They prayed the court to declare a case of perjury and non-possession of valid minimum secondary school certificate against the Zamfara governor.