Court Strikes Out Suit Seeking Adeleke’s Candidacy Nullification

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.

Plaintiff in the suit, Awoyemi Oluwatayo Lukman, had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP and Adeleke before the court, seeking an order of the court to void and set aside the submission of Adeleke’s name to INEC as the PDP candidate on the ground of alleged unlawful action.

The grouse of the plaintiff was that Adeleke’s name was hurriedly submitted by PDP on March 11, 2022 as against the stipulated window of between March 14 and 18, as contained in the INEC guidelines.

Adeleke’s name having not been submitted within the period fixed by INEC, the plaintiff asked the court to declare the submission of the name illegal, unlawful, null and void and be set aside.

He claimed 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.

However, in his judgment, Justice Obiora Egwuatu struck out the suit on the ground that the Plaintiff lacked locus standi to have instituted the case.

The Judge held also that the suit was statute barred having been fixed outside the 14 days stipulated by Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) that all pre-election suits must be filed within 14 days whereas, the suit was filed after 28 days.

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