The lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has approached the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, praying it to nullify the governorship primary election conducted by the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
Senator Adeyemi, in the suit he filed alongside a son of a former Governor of the state, Shuaibu Abubakar and three others, sought the cancellation of the primary election on the premise that it was not validly conducted.
The plaintiffs, in their suits marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 and FHC/ABJ/ CS/557/2023, are praying the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid, the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by the APC, which produced Ahmed Usman Ododo as candidate of the party for the governorship poll billed for November.
The duo told the court that Ododo was handpicked as flag-bearer of the party by the outgoing Governor of the state, Yahaya Bello, in gross violation of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, Section 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act as well as Article 20 of the Constitution of the APC.
They, therefore, urged the court to declare the purported primary election as invalid and to issue an order, compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to recognize Ododo as the bonafide candidate of the party for the governorship election.
Besides, the two aggrieved governorship aspirants, through their team of lawyers led by Dr Adekunle Ottitoju, prayed the court to order the APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
It will be recalled that aside from Adeyemi and Abubakar, other governorship aspirants who had earlier gone to court to challenge the outcome of the said primary election, included a former Minister of State for Education, Professor Stephen Ocheni, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Martala Yakubu Ajaka and Dr Sanusi Ohiara.
In a 35 paragraph affidavit he filed in support of his own originating summons, Senator Adeyemi told the court that he obtained nomination and expression of interest forms from the party at the cost of N50million, following which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election that was slated for April 14, 2023.
Adeyemi told the court that while he waited at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that the purported primary election had been conducted and a purported winner declared.
He alleged that governor Bello had initially asked all other aspirants to step down for his preferred candidate, Ododo, who is from the same zone with him.
The plaintiff told the court that by political arrangement, it ought to be the turn of Kogi West, which had not produced a governor in the history of the state.
Both Adeyemi and Abubakar alleged that governor Bello manipulated the whole process to ensure that his first cousin from the same polling unit, from the same ward, from the same local government and from the same tribe, Mr Ododo, emerged as the governorship candidate of the party, against the laid down rules and regulations.
They told the court that governor Bello had among other things, presided over a panel where figures were allotted in favour of Ododo.
The two governorship aspirants further claimed that the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, who was supposed to preside over and announced the winner of the primary election, left Kogi state in annoyance so as to dissociate himself from the outcome of what they described as shambolic primary election.
Consequently, they separately prayed the court to nullify the primary election and to order to party to conduct a fresh one.
No comments:
Post a Comment