Osun election: Court dismisses suit seeking Oyetola’s disqualification

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed a suit seeking the disqualification of Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.

Delivering judgement, Justice Inyang Ekwo, declared that the suit filed by a chieftain of the APC, Moshood Olalekan Adeoti, against Oyetola was an abuse of court process.

Justice Ekwo held that there was no iota of law supporting the plaintiff (Adeoti)’s process filed before the court.

The presiding judge also agreed with the APC (1st defendant) that the court could not assumed jurisdiction on the matter on the grounds that the there was no cause of action for filing the suit.

Ekwo also held that Adeoti, who was also an aspirant in the February 19 APC’s primary poll, in his application, also admitted that he did not exhaust the party’s internal mechanism before filing the suit.

Consequently, the judge dismissed the suit in its entirety for being an abuse of court process.

Adeoti, the plaintiff in the suit, filed the matter through his legal team led by Chiesonu Okpoko, SAN.

In the suit, the plaintiff listed the APC, Oyetola, and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendant, respectively.

Adeoti, who was an aspirant in the February 19 Osun APC governorship primaries in the originating summons dated February 22 and filed February 23, prayed the court to nullify Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that he (Oyetola) contested in the poll as a member of the party’s Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).

Adeoti said the act contravened the provisions of Section 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended) and Article 31(iii) of the APC (October 2014 as Amended).

According to him, Oyetola ought to have resigned his membership of the APC’s CECPC and leave office as an official of the APC at least 30 days prior to the date of the party’s primary election in Osun State to qualify for participation in the said primaries.

Upon resumption of the matter on Wednesday, Adeoti’s counsel, Mahmud Adesina, SAN, said the matter was adjourned for hearing, adding that he was ready to proceed on the case.

The Star