A Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday that sought to disqualify the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Governor Gboyega Oyetola from the Saturday governor’s election in Osun State.
Moshood Olalekan Adeoti, the plaintiff and a Chieftain of the APC, utterly failed to disclose any cause of action, and Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo dismissed the case on six grounds.
The judge ruled that the former governorship candidate’s lawsuit represented a grave abuse of the legal system and that the plaintiff had not given the internal processes sufficient time to run their course before rushing to court.
The claims made by Olusegun Jolaawo SAN that Governor Oyetola’s membership on the Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), which is the subject of the lawsuit, is an ad hoc group and not the actual APC office recognised by the party’s Constitution, were upheld by Justice Ekwo.
Adeoti had requested that the current governor, Gboyega Oyetola, be disqualified from the election for governor.
He requested that Oyetola’s candidacy be disqualified in the initial summons on the grounds that the governor participated in the February 19 primary as a member of the APC’s National Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
The plaintiff claimed that the act was against Section 222 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 31(iii) of the APC, October 2014 (as amended).
The judge, however, determined that the CECPC is merely an ad hoc body established in the absence of the National Executive Committee as required by law and not a position recognised by the APC Constitution for which anyone can be disqualified.
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