The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday has refused to disqualify Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State from contesting in the governorship election in the state under the APC.
The suit was brought before the court by an aggrieved aspirant of the party, Moshood Adeoti through his team of lawyers led by Chiesonu Okpoko, SAN, who claimed that Oyetola 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 which violates Section 22(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 31(iii) of the APC Constitution, by allowing the Defendant to run for a re-election, while still in position as a member of the committee.
He further 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.
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 lacked merit and deserved to be dismissed and also 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.
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.
Consequently, the court therefore dismissed the suit for not disclosing any cause of action against the Defendants
