The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Smart Adeyemi, a son of Former Kogi State Governor, Shuaibu Audu and three others have demanded immediate cancellation of the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC’s) primary for the selection of the party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship election.
The plaintiffs approached the court on Thursday to seek an order to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC from accepting the nomination name of Ododo as a candidate of the APC for the Governorship election on November 11th, 2023.
In their separate suits filed in the court, Adeyemi and Audu are specifically asking the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by APC and which produced Ahmed Ododo as the governorship candidate of the APC in November this year.
The plaintiffs in an interview with journalists outside the Federal High Court in Abuja, where the suits were filed called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima and the Arewa Consultative Forum to intervene in order to save democracy in Kogi State.
The grouse of the aggrieved governorship aspirants was that the alleged unlawful selection of Ododo is against Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution and Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act as well as Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution.
The plaintiffs amongst others are praying the court invoke Section 177 of the Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act and Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution, to declare the purported primary election invalid.
They also asked the court for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject and refuse recognition of the name of Ahmed Usman Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he emerged from an invalid primary election.
Similarly, the aggrieved governorship aspirants also prayed for another order compelling APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
Senator Adeyemi’s suit and that of Abubakar are instituted on their behalf separately by Dr Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju.
In a 35-paragraph affidavit in support of his own originating summons, Senator Adeyemi claimed to have obtained his nomination and expression of interest form at N50 million upon which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election slated for April 14, 2023.
Adeyemi further claimed that while waiting at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that the purported primary election had been conducted and a purported winner had emerged.
Addressing journalists shortly after filing the suit Senator Adeyemi and Audu described the purported primary that produced Ododo as a rape of democracy and must not be allowed to stand if democracy is to thrive in the country.
Amongst other wrong steps, the aspirants alleged that Governor Bello presided over a panel where figures were concocted in favour of Ododo to announce his name as the winner of the purported primary election.
The two governorship aspirants further claimed that Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, who ought to preside and announced the winner of the primary election left Kogi State in annoyance to dissociate himself from the falsehood that characterized the primary election.
Apart from Adeyemi and Audu, other aspirants who have already commenced legal action against the outcome of the primary include, a former Minister of State for Education, Professor Stephen Ocheni, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Martala Yakubu Ajaka and Dr Sanusi Ohiara.
Dominica Nwabufo
