The Supreme Court on Thursday set October 3 to issue a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Smart Adeyemi challenging the conduct of the April 14 All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election for the Kogi governorship election.
John Okoro, heading a panel of court judges, set the date after receiving arguments from the parties in the case.
Adeyemi questions the validity of the primary election that resulted in Ahmed Ododo as the APC flag bearer for the November 11 gubernatorial election.
Smart Adeyemi [PHOTO CREDIT: @SenSmartAdeyemi]
The appellant’s complaint is that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the APC guidelines were compromised during the primary elections.
Specifically, Mr. Adeyemi, who recently represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the Senate, claimed that the result presented by APC in support of Mr. Ododo was fraudulent and invalid because the primary elections were held only in 11 of 239 districts in the Senate. state.
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The Federal High Court in Abuja and the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal dismissed his suit and subsequent appeals on the grounds that the allegations of malpractice were not proven as required by law, prompting him to approach the Supreme Court.
Adeyemi’s lawyer, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Musibawu Adedtunmbi, on Wednesday pleaded with the Supreme Court to grant his client’s prayers.
In adopting his brief of pleadings, the lawyer maintained that the April 14 primary elections were held in serious violation of Article 84 of the Electoral Law of 2022.
LR: Usman Ododo, Yahaya Bello, Salifu Joel [PHOTO: Voice of Nigeria]“Elections were not held in 228 wards and the claim was supported by INEC field officials in their report on the primary elections,” the lawyer said.
However, APC counsel AbdulWahab Mohammed prayed the court to dismiss Mr Adeyemi’s appeal because it goes against the concurrent factual findings of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.
For his part, INEC counsel, Adeyemi Adeniyi, also a SAN, after adopting his submissions, also similarly argued that the appeal was manifestly incompetent and that the decision of the two lower courts should be upheld because there was no allegation of perversion of justice. in their decisions.
Similarly, the third respondent, Mr. Ododo, through his lawyer, Francis Ekpa, prayed the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal as academic since the 180-day period within which APC can carry out another primary election for the candidate’s nomination has expired. since it expired.
(YAYA)
