•••Wants order compelling INEC not to recognize Ododo as party’s flag-bearer, seeks Buhari, Tinubu, Adamu, ACF, others’ intervention
By News Desk
The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Smart Adeyemi, former Kogi state governor’s son, Shuaibu Abubakar and three others have called for the cancellation of the just concluded primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the selection of the party’s flag-bearer in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
In suits numbered: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 and FHC/ABJ/ CS/557/2023, filed by Senator Adeyemi and Abubakar respectively, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by APC, which produced Ahmed Usman Ododo as the governorship candidate of the APC in the Kogi state governorship election slated to hold in November this year.
The grouse of the aggrieved governorship aspirants was that the alleged unlawful selection of Ododo ran foul of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution and Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act as well as Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution.
Apart from Adeyemi and Abubakar, other aspirants who have already filed suit challenging the outcome of the primary election include, a former Minister of State for Education, Professor Stephen Ocheni, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka and Dr Sanusi Ohiara.
The plaintiffs, amongst others, are praying the court to invoke Section 177 of the Constitution, Section 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act and Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution, to declare the purported primary election invalid.
They also asked the court for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject and refuse recognition of the name of Ahmed Usman Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he emerged from an invalid primary election.
Similarly, the aggrieved governorship aspirants also prayed for another order compelling APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
Senator Adeyemi’s suit and that of Abubakar are filed on their behalf, separately by their counsel, Dr Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju.
Smart Adeyemi, in a 35-paragraph affidavit in support of his own originating summons, claimed to have obtained his nomination and expression of interest form at the cost of N50 million upon which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election slated for April 14, 2023.
Adeyemi further claimed that while waiting at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that the purported primary election had been conducted and a purported winner had emerged.
Addressing a joint press conference shortly after filing the suit, Senator Adeyemi and Abubakar described the purported primary that produced Ododo as a phenomenal rape of democracy and must not be allowed to stand if democracy is to thrive in the country.
The Senator alleged that the governor had asked all the aspirants to step down for his preferred candidate from the same zone as him, adding that it is the turn of Kogi West which had not produced a governor in the history of the state to do so.
While noting that some aspirants have been subdued already, Adeyemi assured that he would fight the injustice to the last in the interest of the Kogi people and democracy.
“If the election was rigged, we know that election was rigged, but the election never took place at all”, he said.
On his part, Abubakar said, what happened in Kogi State during the purported primary election was contrary to the constitution, and should not be allowed to stand.
They both accused the state governor, Yahaya Bello of manipulating the whole process that produced his first cousin from the same polling unit, from the same ward, from the same local government and from the same tribe, Ahmed Usman Ododo against the laid down rules and regulations.
Amongst other wrong steps, the aspirants alleged that Governor Bello presided over a panel where figures were concocted in favour of Ododo to announce his name as the winner of the purported primary election.
The two governorship aspirants further claimed that Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, who ought to preside and announce the winner of the primary election left Kogi State in annoyance to dissociate himself from the falsehood that characterized the primary election.
The plaintiffs, in a chat with newsmen at the Federal High Court, Abuja, where the suits were filed, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to intervene in the matter to save democracy in Kogi State.
