A lawsuit contesting the selection of Ademola Adeleke as the People’s Democratic Party candidate for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State was dismissed on Thursday by Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to Justice Egwuatu’s ruling, Adeleke should not have been allowed to run in the election because of Adeleke’s incapacity and lack of merit.
He claimed that Lukman Awoyemi, the plaintiff and a PDP member who had been wronged, lacked the essential locus standi (legal standing) to bring the case in the first place.
The action had been statute barred and was eligible for dismissal since it had not been submitted within the legal window of time for a pre election matter, the court further ruled in its ruling that the suit lacked merit.
The plaintiff in the case with the file number FHC /ABJ/ CS/469/22 had asked the court to disqualify Adeleke from the July 16 governorship election on the grounds that his nomination as a PDP candidate had not been submitted through the Independent National Electoral Commission’s online portal within the time frame specified by the election umpire.
The PDP, INEC, and Adeleke were identified as the case’s first, second, and third defendants, respectively.
The plaintiff said the PDP sent Adeleke’s nomination to the online portal of INEC on March 11, days outside the March 14 to 18, as contained in INEC guidelines for the conduct of the Osun governorship poll.
He argued that the action of the PDP breached INEC’s guidelines hence, the court should set aside Adeleke’s nomination as PDP’s governorship candidate in the poll.
However, delivering judgment, Justice Egwuatu agreed with the submissions of the PDP and Adeleke that Awoyemi does not have the necessary locus standi to challenge Adeleke’s nomination in the first place.
According to the defendants, Awoyemi was not an aspirant in the governorship poll and not even a member of the PDP.
Justice Egwuatu also agreed that the case of the plaintiff was statute barred as it was filed 28 days after the cause of action arose.
