*Dismissed Adeoti suit
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday gave Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate a clean bill to contest the Osun State governorship election on Saturday.
The Court said that the suit seeking disqualification of the incumbent governor of Osun State , Isiaka Oyetola and the All Progressive Congress (APC) from the election lacked merit and hereby dismissed.
An APC chieftain and former governorship aspirant, Moshood Adeoti had instituted the legal action seeking the disqualification of Gov. Oyetola and the party from the governorship poll . He had alleged that due processes of law was not followed during the conduct of the primary election that produced Oyetola as the gubernatorial candidate.
The trial court judge ,Justice Inyang Ekwo in his judgment held that the plaintiff suit failed to disclosed any cause of action. The suit, he added , constituted a gross abuse of court process.
The judge also said that the plaintiff did not exhaust internal mechanism for dispute resolution before rushing to court.
Justice Ekwo in a judgment upheld the arguments of Olusegun Jolaawo (SAN), that membership of the APC’S National Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) on which the suit is predicated is an ad-hoc body and not the real APC’S National Executive Committee (NEC) recognized by the party’s Constitution.
In the originating summons, Adeoti prayed the court to nullify Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that the governor contested in the February 19 primary election as a member of the APC’s National Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
The plaintiff said the act of Oyetola contravened the provisions of Section 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Article 31(iii) of the APC, October 2014 (as amended).
But the Judge in the judgment held that CECPC is not same as the office recognized by the APC’S Constitution upon which anybody can be disqualified.
Specifically, Justice Ekwo said that CECPC is a mere ad-hoc body put in place in the absence of the National Executive Committee known to law.
Besides, the Judge agreed that the issue of nomination of candidates for elective offices by political parties is an internal affairs of parties which no court can inquire into except where expressly stated by law.
Justice Ekwo wondered why Adeoti resorted to court action after fully participating in the primary election, scored some votes and lost to Oyetola adding that his action amounted to approbating and reprobating at the same time against the provisions of the law
The Judge said that from the totally of the evidence placed before the court and questions raised for determination, the plaintiff did not disclose any cause of action.
Justice Ekwo subsequently dismissed the suit on six grounds.
The plaintiff in the suit and a chieftain of the APC, Moshood Adeoti, had filed the matter through his legal team led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chiesonu Okpoko.
Adeoti, a candidate of former governor Rauf Aregbesola, the incumbent Minister of Interior was one of the aspirants who lost the APC governorship ticket to Governor Oyetola of Bola Ahmed Tinubu faction of APC during the party’s primary held on February 19.
According to him, the second defendant (Oyetola) ought to have resigned his membership of the APC’s CECPC and leave office as an officer of APC at least 30 days prior to the date of the Osun State primary election, to qualify for participation in the said party primary election.
Governor Oyetola is seeking for a second four years term having won the last election held in 2018.
The governorship election is billed for Saturday, July 16.