A federal high court Abuja on Thursday dismissed an eligibility case against candidate of the All Progressive Congress for the Saturday governorship election in Osun State, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola.
Former Secretary to the State Government in Osun Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, had instituted the case Oyetola claiming that Oyetola was not validly nominated as the candidate of the APC in the last primaries that produced him.
Just the trial judge said the matter between Adeoti and Oyetola was an internal affair of the APC which it could not rule on.
Delivering Judgement, Justice Inyang Ekwo, stated that the plaintiff, Moshood Adeoti, failed to support the process with relevant laws, and as such, showed no cause of action in the suit which makes it a gross abuse of court process.
He then filed the case seeking the governor’s disqualification through his legal team led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chiesonu Okpoko.
In the originating summons, he prayed the court to nullify Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that the governor contested in the poll as a member of the party’s 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).
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.