2027: Court sacks Senator Karimi as APC candidate for Kogi West

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has nullified the emergence of Senator Sunday Karimi as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Kogi West Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.

Delivering judgement on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, Justice Salim Ibrahim ordered Karimi to stop parading himself as the APC’s candidate for the senatorial district in the 2027 general election.

Justice Ibrahim held that the plaintiff, Bamidele Aro, had been able to prove his case and was entitled to all the reliefs sought.

The judge declared that from the totality of evidence placed before the court, the election that Aro won was conducted by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) Election Committee and monitored by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but “the purported primary allegedly won by Karimi was not monitored by the commission and was, therefore, invalid.”

Justice Ibrahim added that INEC did not have the record of the results of the election Karimi claimed to have won.

“No wonder, the third defendant (INEC) did not give them the certified true copy of same even after being applied for by the 2nd defendant (Karimi) to the third defendant by a letter dated June 15,” Justice Ibrahim said, citing Karimi’s Exhibit 7b to back his decision.

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The judge, who granted all the reliefs sought by Aro in his suit, added: “The law says it is the aspirant who emerged at the end of the primaries with highest number of votes that shall be declared the winner of the primaries of the party and the aspirant shall be issued with INEC Form EC9 which shall be forwarded to INEC as the candidate of the party.”

Justice Ibrahim, therefore, ordered the APC to immediately forward Aro’s name as that party’s candidate for the 2027 senatorial poll.

He also ordered the INEC to publish Aro’s name as the lawful candidate of APC for the Kogi West Senatorial District election for the election.