The Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday dismissed a suit filed by a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Smart Adeyemi against the emergence of Usman Ododo as the party’s candidate at the last primary election.
In the suit marked: FHC/CS/556/2023 in Smart Adeyemi v. APC & 2 Ors, the plaintiffs urged the court to nullify the primary of the APC for Kogi governorship election which produced Ododo as the candidate for the election scheduled for November.
They described the direct primary election conducted by APC which produced Ododo as the governorship candidate of the party as illegal. Amongst others, they alleged that the election of Ododo ran foul of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution.
They also asked the court for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission to reject and refuse to recognise Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate.
Delivering judgment, Justice James Omotosho held that the suit lacked merit and substance.
The court held that Adeyemi’s allegations were criminal in nature as he alleged that elections did not hold and that the produced results were forged.
He said the applicant needed to prove the allegations of forgery, and falsification of results, beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the court, Senator Adeyemi had the burden of proof to produce the forged result or both the original and the forged results, and failure to discharge the burden “is fatal to the case of the applicant.”
Justice Omotosho also held that the allegation that the election did not hold was also not substantiated as the applicant only provided evidence from his Ward in Ijumu LGA.
He said, in any case, the evidence was denied by the respondents who attached the monitoring reports of the electoral commission.
“In this case, INEC attached its monitoring report and also attached copies of the result, police report confirming the conduct of the election signed by the Commissioner of Police, the case of the Applicant has no basis.”
He said, “In the final analysis, having reviewed all the evidence in this matter, I have no doubt that the APC primary election was held in all the wards of Kogi State on the 14th day of April 2023.”
“This Honourable Court will not allow the will of a few just like that of the applicant to override the will of the majority. The applicant’s case has no merit. It is hereby dismissed.”
Consequently, the Justice dismissed the case for lack of merit.
Meanwhile, the National Secretary of All Progressives Congress, Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Tuesday night described the National Vice Chairman of North-West, Mallam Salihu Lukman, as a loose canon and the ‘black sheep’ of the party.
Omisore spoke on Channels Television’s programme, ‘Politics Today’.
He described the National Vice Chairman for North-West as a gas lighter who liked crying wolf where there was none.
“What else do you want us to do to him? Beat or kill him? When you listen to people like Lukman, you won’t know what is happening. This Lukman that doesn’t attend meetings is acting like a loose canon.
“The NWC members are 25 and only one person, Lukman, has written so many letters, which bothered on ignorance on his part. About two months ago, he came to apologise and held a press conference to say he wasn’t well informed about what he did. All he said were things done within the party. He never attends party meetings,” Omisore said.
When asked if he was aware many APC supporters and NWC members wanted Adamu to be kicked out of the party, Omisore dismissed the report.
He also berated those secretly backing or standing by Lukman’s philosophy, saying they were ‘cowards.’
“We are not aware of any. But know that they are cowards too. There are cowards everywhere. So it is not impossible. But the point is that out of 25 members of the NWC, only one person is the ‘black sheep.’
“He is just used to doing the ranting. There is nothing special about it. This was somebody who came to apologise openly at a press conference. How can you take someone like that seriously?” he quipped.
