A Federal High Court, sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Friday, dismissed a case filed by Hon. Olugbemi Sunbo, against the victory of Hon Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, who emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Oluyole federal constituency in May 2022.
Hon Akande-Sadipe won the ticket of the party at the primary election conducted on 27th May, 2022.
On 22nd of June, an action was filed by Olugbemi, asking the presiding judge, Hon. Justice Uche Nma Agomoh, to invalidate the primaries that produced Akande-Sadipe as the APC candidate for the House of Representatives to represent Oluyole Federla constituency.
But on Friday, December 9th, 2022, the court held that Akande-Sadipe, who represents the constituency, remains the rightful candidate of the APC for Oluyole federal constituency.
The suit, Samson Olusunmo Olugbemi vs APC and two others, numbered FHC/IB/CS/109/2022, was dismissed on the grounds that there was no evidence that he won the primaries.
The court held that there was “no evidence of any malpractice in the primary election was established by the plaintiff,” according to the counsel to Akande-Sadipe and APC, Olawole Abiola and Adeola Adedipe respectively.
The court inferred that the case was held to be statute barred, having been filed over 14 days after the cause of action occurred, which is the APC primary election of 27th of May, 2022, contrary to the provision of the constitution that provides that any action challenging primary election must be filed within 14 days of the primary election.
The court affirmed that the plaintiff does not qualify as an aspirant under the Electoral Act 2022, having not asserted that he participated in the primary.
Hence, the court ruled that there were no grounds put before it, to nullify the ticket of the party in the custody of Hon Akande-Sadipe, having fulfilled all the provisions of the law and complied with stipulated guidelines.
Speaking further, the counsels said that the presiding judge struck out the case filed by the plaintiff, Olugbemi, saying that it does not have jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiff’s action, “because the plaintiff claimed that there was no primary election.”
The court declared, “The court is only empowered under Section 285(14) of the constitution to examine the absence of due process in the conduct of primaries of a political party. However, the plaintiff said there was no primary election. The court rightly declined jurisdiction.
“The Federal High Court, Ibadan, is not the proper forum to commence the action, because by the FHC Practice Direction on Pre-Elections, 2022, an action must be commenced at Federal High Court, Abuja, where the plaintiff complains against the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and APC, whose headquarters are both in Abuja.”
Accordingly, the court declared Akande-Sadipe as the validly nominated and authentic candidate of the APC for Oluyole federal constituency and the validly nominated candidate for the House of Representatives election coming up in February 2023.
