The Supreme Court has set October 3 as the date for its ruling on the Kogi State election brought by Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressive Congress against the party’s governorship primary election.
The former lawmaker is disputing the legitimacy of the poll that resulted in Usman Ododo being elected as the APC’s standard bearer for the November 11 supplementary governorship election.
The Nation reported that Adeyemi, who represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the Senate, is claiming that the result brought out by APC in support of Ododo was fraudulent and invalid on the ground that the primary election was conducted in only 11 out of 239 wards in the state.
His complaint is that the requirements of the Electoral Act and the APC’s guidelines were violated during the primaries.
At the Appeal’s hearing, Adeyemi’s counsel, Musibau Adetumbi, adopted his briefs and prayed to the court to grant the reliefs sought by Adeyemi.
The senior lawyer argued that the primary election of April 14 was conducted in gross violation of section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
He claimed that the election was not held in 228 wards and that the claim was supported by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s field officers in their report on the primary election.
Counsel for the APC, AbdulWahab Mohammed, asked the court to dismiss Adeyemi’s appeal on the grounds that it contradicts the concurrent findings of fact by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
In his brief argument, counsel for the INEC informed the apex court panel that the appeal was incompetent and that the decisions of the two lower courts should be upheld.
Counsel for Usman Ododo further requested that the Appeal be dismissed on the grounds that it has become academic.
He further stated that the 180-day period in which the APC can hold another primary poll for candidate nomination has already expired.
After hearing the parties’ arguments, Justice Inyang Okoro declared that the final judgment would be issued on October 3.
