Posted by Amarachi on Thu 03rd Apr, 2025 - tori.ng
Abbo alleged that the Judge was pressured to rule against him, claiming that the judicial system was compromised.
Sen Elijah Ishaku Abbo
Former Adamawa lawmaker, Sen Elijah Ishaku Abbo, has alleged that the judiciary manipulated the 2023 election outcome, causing him to lose his seat.
Recall that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had, on October 16, 2023, nullified Abbo’s election and declared Amos Yohanna of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the rightful winner of the February 25, 2023 senatorial election in Adamawa North.
In an interview on Arise Television’s programme, PrimeTime show on Wednesday night, April 2, 2025, Abbo said he lost his senatorial seat in the 10th Senate due to ‘judicial banditry’.
Abbo alleged that the Judge was pressured to rule against him, claiming that the judicial system was compromised.
According to him, the fact that the Judge sent the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, to his house to beg him over the judgment confirmed irregularities in the judicial process.
Expressing frustration over what he described as a lack of accountability in the judiciary, Senator Abbo advocated the dissolution of the NJC, arguing that it had failed in its duty.
He said, “I lost my senatorial seat through judicial banditry because there is no law that backs what happened. I believe the Judge knows what she did, and that is why she had to send Ken Nnamani to my house to come and beg me. And it’s true, Ken Nnamani is still alive.
“Of course, she was pressured, and I have stated it time and time again. Unfortunately, I petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC), but the NJC has become a body that only punishes small judges—Magistrates and High Court Judges—but cannot punish big Judges.
“They should dismantle the NJC, they are doing nothing,” he declared. “I am advocating that the NBA should be the one punishing judges by passing a vote of no confidence on erring judges.”
The former federal lawmaker further criticised the court’s decision, notably the cancellation of election results in two out of five local government areas of Adamawa North without ordering a rerun.
He added, “A situation where a judge said that an election that took place in five local governments, and she cancelled the election in two local governments, disenfranchised two local governments, 263 polling units, and did not order a re-election as the law stipulates—that is not the law, that is robbery, that is a coup against democracy.”