The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed October 3 for judgment in a suit filed by Smart Adeyemi challenging the conduct of the April 14 primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Kogi governorship election.
Justice John Okoro fixed the date after taking arguments from both parties.
Mr Adeyemi is challenging the validity of the primary, which produced Ahmed Ododo as APC’s flagbearer for the November 11 governorship election.
He alleged that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the guidelines of the APC were compromised during the primary.
Specifically, Mr Adeyemi, who recently represented Kogi West senatorial district, is claiming that the emergence of Mr Ododo as APC governorship candidate was fraudulent and invalid on the ground that the primary was conducted in only 11 out of 239 wards in Kogi.
The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court in Abuja and the Court of Appeal had delivered judgments against Mr Adeyeme on the ground that the allegations of malpractices were not proved as required by law, prompting him to go to the Supreme Court.
After adopting his briefs, Mr Adeyemi’s lawyer, Musibawu Adedtunmbi, prayed the apex court to grant the reliefs sought by the appellant. He argued that the primary election of April 14 was conducted in gross violation of section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
However, APC counsel AbdulWahab Mohammed prayed the court to dismiss Adeyemi’s appeal on the ground that it is against the concurrent findings of fact by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
INEC counsel Adeyemi Adeniyi, after adopting his briefs, told the apex court that the appeal was grossly incompetent and that the decision of the two lower courts should be affirmed because there was no allegation of perversion of justice in the decisions of the two lower courts.
The third respondent, Mr Ododo, through his counsel, Francis Ekpa, asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal, pointing out that the 180 days APC can conduct another primary to nominate another candidate had lapsed.
(NAN)
