Federal High Court Dismisses Suit Seeking Oyetola’s Disqualification From Saturday Election

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday dismissed a suit seeking disqualification of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Governor Gboyega Oyetola from the Osun State Governorship election slated for Saturday.

Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo dismissed the suit on six grounds that the plaintiff, a Chieftain of APC, Moshood Olalekan Adeoti, failed woefully to disclose any cause of action.

The judge held that the suit instituted by the former governorship aspirant constituted a gross abuse of the court process and that the plaintiff did not exhaust the internal mechanism before rushing to court.

Justice Ekwo upheld the arguments of Olusegun Jolaawo SAN that membership of the APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) by Governor Oyetola in which the suit is predicted is an ad-hoc body and not the real APC’s office recognised by the party’s Constitution.

Adeoti had sought disqualification of the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola from the gubernatorial poll

In the originating summons, he 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 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 held that CECPC is not an office recognized by the APC’s Constitution upon which anybody can be disqualified but a mere ad-hoc body put in place in the absence of the National Executive Committee known to law.