A federal high court in Abuja on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that overturned the disqualification of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun as a candidate for the All Progressives Congress in the state’s governorship election on Saturday. Judge Inyang Ekwo, who issued the ruling, stated that the lawsuit brought by a head of the APC, Alhaji Moshood Olalekan Adeoti, against Oyetola was an abuse of justice. Justice Ekwo ruled that there was no law to support the plaintiff’s (Adeoti) lawsuit filed with the court. The judge also agreed with the APC (1st defendant) that the court could not declare itself competent in this regard because of the lack of grounds for submitting the claim. Ekwo also believed that Adeoti, who was also a nominee in the APC’s Feb. 19 primary poll, also admitted in his filing that he had not exhausted the party’s internal mechanism before filing the charges. Consequently, the judge dismissed the case in its entirety for misuse of justice. Adeoti, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, has filed the case through his legal team led by Chiesonu Okpoko, SAN. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff named the APC, Oyetola and the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants, respectively. Adeoti, who was aspiring in the primary election for Osun APC governorship on February 19 in the original summons dated February 22 and filed on February 23, prayed the court to nullify Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that he (Oyetola) was in contested the poll as a member of the party’s Concierge Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee. Adeoti said the law violated the provisions of Article 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, the second defendant (Oyetola) should have resigned from the first defendant’s CECPC (APC) membership and left his post as the first defendant’s officer at least 30 days before the first defendant’s state Osun date. primaries to be eligible to participate in the primaries of the first defendant. When the case resumed on Wednesday, Adeoti’s counsel, Mahmud Adesina, SAN, informed that the case was adjourned for hearing and that he was ready to move forward with the case. (NA)
