The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, nullified the nomination of Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun state as APC guber candidate for the governorship election held in the state on July 16.
Delivering his judgment ,Justice Emeka Nwite noted that Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state, who submitted the names of Oyetola and his running mate, Mr Gboyega Alabi to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
It will be recalled that the PDP had instituted the lawsuit against Governor Buni, Governor Oyetola and others.
The party had through its counsel, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN in the lawsuit filed on April 7, challenged the nomination and declaration of Oyetola and his deputy as duly nominated candidates of the APC for the July 16 guber election.
Challenging the competence of the suit, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, who represented Oyetola, had contended, amongst other grounds, that the PDP did not have the locus to pursue the case and that the suit was statute-barred but Ogunwumiju had argued that the plaintiff (PDP) rightly instituted the lawsuit under Section 285(14) (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
Delivering his judgment, Nwite agreed with the line of argument of the counsel for PDP and declared as null and void, the nomination of Oyetola and Alabi by the APC
The court also held that Buni acted in contravention of the provision of Section 183 of the Constitution by holding dual executive positions as Governor of Yobe and Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the APC.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned the court added that decisions taken by Governor Buni, including forwarding the names of Oyetola and Alabi to INEC, were considered a nullity in law.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared former Senator Ademola Adeleke as winner of the July 16 governorship election and already announced him as Governor-elect.
The returning officer for the election , who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, had announced that Adeleke got 403,371 votes while Governor Oyetola had 375,027 votes.
Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s Chief Press Secretary , Mr Ismail Omipidan, has however in a statement issued in Osogbo, urged supporters of the governor to remain calm noting that Oyetola’s team of lawyers would be challenging the decision at the Appeal Court while expressing confidence that the Friday ruling would be set aside.
Omipidan further noted that the lawsuit was instituted by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in spite of the fact there had been a plethora of decisions flowing from the apex court that frowns upon such a decision.
For the record, Omipidan noted, the position of the law ‘is that only members of the APC ,who participated in the primary election, can approach the court to challenge the nomination of Oyetola as the candidate of the party’.
‘All these are part of the antics of the opposition PDP and some of their collaborators from within to distract us. But like every of their plans, this too has fallen flat on their face.
They want to distract us from the Tribunal case. But we shall remain focused until we take back our mandate. We have confidence in the Tribunal to do justice in the case before it, just as we have implicit confidence in the Appeal Court to set aside this latest decision of the Federal High Court’ he said-
Team@orientactualmags.com
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