Osun guber: Court dismisses bid to nullify Adeleke’s candidacy
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has struck out a suit seeking the nullification of the nomination of Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the July 16 Osun State governorship election on the ground of impropriety.
The presiding judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, struck out the suit on the ground that the plaintiff, Awoyemi Oluwatayo Lukman, lacked locus standi to institute the case.The Judge also said that the suit was statute barred, hence the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The court further held that the suit lacked merit, having been filed outside the 14 days allowed by law for a pre-election matter.
In the suit marked FHC /ABJ/ CS/469/22, the plaintiff asked the court to disqualify Adeleke from participating in the July 16 governorship poll on the grounds that the party had hurriedly submitted his name (Adeleke) to INEC on March 11, 2022, as against the March 14 to 18 timeframe given by the electoral commission in its guidelines.
He submitted that INEC must be bound by its official guidelines and that anything done outside the guidelines is against the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Awoyemi, therefore, prayed the court to declare the submission of Adeleke’s name illegal, unlawful, null and void and be set aside.
However, the judge struck out the suit.
On July 16, Adeleke was declared the winner of the governorship election by INEC.
He secured 403, 371 votes to defeat Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 375,027 votes.
