The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for governor of Kogi, Senator Smart Afolabi Adeyemi, filed a lawsuit in Abuja’s Federal High Court challenging the selection of Usman Ododo as the party’s nominee at the party’s most recent primary election. The lawsuit was dismissed.
On Wednesday, the Court declared that the case lacked the validity and substance to support granted claims made against Ododo and the APC.
Justice James Kolawole Omotosho ruled in the case titled “Smart Adeyemi v. APC & 2 Ors” that the claims made by Adeyemi, who claimed that the elections had not taken place and that the results had been fabricated, were criminal.
He stated that the applicant has to establish the claims of forgery and result falsification beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court stated that Senator Adeyemi is required to present either the authentic results or the falsified results in order to satisfy the burden, and that failing to do so “is fatal to the applicant’s case.”
Because the applicant only produced evidence from his Ward in the Ijumu LGA, Justice Omotosho concluded that the claim that the election was invalid was similarly unsupported.
In any case, he claimed, this material was refuted by the respondents, who had the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which was tasked with overseeing the election, attach monitoring reports.
“In this case, INEC attached its monitoring report and also attached copies of the result, police report confirming the conduct of the election, and a police report signed by the Commissioner of Police, the applicant’s case has no basis,” he added.
Because the case lacked merit, Justice Omotosho dismissed it.
He concluded by saying, “In the end, I have no doubt that the APC primary election result held in all the wards of Kogi State on the fourteenth day of April 2023 and I so hold.
This Honourable Court will not let a small number of people, like the applicant, to overrule the wishes of the majority. There is no merit to the applicant’s case. It is hereby rejected.
