The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, refused to disqualify Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State from contesting tomorrow’s governorship election in the state as candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the suit that sought to invalidate Oyetola’s nomination as APC flag-bearer of the APC lacked merit and deserved to be dismissed.
The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/203/2022, was brought before the court by an aggrieved aspirant of the party, Moshood Adeoti.
Adeoti had, among other things, challenged the emergence of Oyetola as APC governorship candidate, insisting that he was not validly nominated.
He alleged that the governor unlawfully contested the governorship primary election while holding position as member of the Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee, CECPC, of the APC.
The Plaintiff argued that the APC violated Section 22(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 31(iii) of its own Constitution, by allowing the Defendant to run for a re-election, while still in position as a member of the committee.
Adeoti, through his team of lawyers led by Chiesonu Okpoko, SAN, maintained that Governor Oyetola ought to have resigned his membership of the said committee, at least 30 days before the primary election was held on February 19.
He, therefore, urged the court to void Oyetola’s candidacy.
Meanwhile, apart from governor Oyetola, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the APC, filed preliminary objections to oppose the suit which they said was bereft of merit.
The APC further queried the jurisdiction of the court to meddle in what it described as domestic affairs of a political party.
Delivering his judgement, yesterday, Justice Ekwo held that the Plaintiff failed to establish a reasonable cause of action to warrant Oyetola’s disqualification.
The court held that the suit, which it said was an abuse of the judicial process, was not backed with relevant laws, adding that it was brought outside the scope of Section 87(9) of the Electoral Act and Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
It stressed that the Plaintiff failed to exhaust the internal mechanism for dispute resolution provided by the party before he instituted the action.
More so, the court noted that the CECPC, which governor Oyetola was a member, was an ad-hoc body and not the substantive National Executive Committee, NEC, of the APC that is recognized by the party’s Constitution.
Justice Ekwo said the CECPC was a mere ad-hoc body that was put in place in the absence of the NEC that is known to the law, even as he agreed that the issue of nomination of candidates for elective offices, is an internal affair of parties which no court can inquire into except where expressly stated by law.
He wondered why Adeoti resorted to a court action after he had fully participating in the said primary election, scored some votes and lost the contest to Oyetola.
Consequently, the court dismissed the suit for not disclosing any cause of action against the Defendants.
“I hereby decline jurisdiction in the internal affairs of a political party. Where a member is dissatisfied with the party’s decision, the only option is for such person to leave.
“The plaintiff has shown no cause of action in the case and I so hold. This suit is accordingly dismissed as an abuse of court process.”