The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Kogi State, which produced Ahmed Usman Ododo as the party’s flagbearer for the November 11 election, was challenged by Senator Smart Adeyemi before the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday.
Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju’s appeal on Senator Adeyemi’s behalf was declared to be utterly without merit by the appellate court, and it was dismissed.
Adeyemi, who most recently served as the senator from Kogi West, was ruled by a three-person panel of judges to have failed to prove all of the claims made against the APC and its leaders’ handling of the primary election.
All three of the matters that were in contention against Adeyemi were settled by Justice Mohammed Lawal Shuaib, who gave the lead judgement.
The charges of manipulation and fabrication of the primary election results made by Adeyemi, according to Shuaib, should have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt as required by law because they are criminal in nature.
Additionally, he rejected the appellant’s claim that the APC Appeal Committee denied him a fair hearing after receiving his complaint about the allegedly irregular primary election process.
According to him, the Court of Appeal cannot consider the denial of a fair hearing as a new matter because it was not addressed in his first summons to the Federal High Court.
The Court of Appeal ruled that Adeyemi’s allegations remained merely assertions and could not have any probative value in the absence of convincing and verifiable proof on his behalf.
After that, Justice Shuaib dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.
The Federal High Court in Abuja’s ruling, which was handed down on July 12 and stated that Adeyemi had failed to establish his claims that Ododo had been improperly nominated by the APC, was confirmed by the Court of Appeal.
