POLITICS

Kogi: Court fixes July 18 for judgment.

Published

11 months ago

June 14, 2023

Stella Charles Akupue

Kogi: Court fixes July 18 for judgment.

APC Guber crisis.

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday fixed July 18 for judgment in a suit seeking disqualification of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Usman Ododo, from the November 11 gubernatorial election in Kogi State.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu fixed the judgment date after taking arguments from the plaintiff in the suit, Abubakar Achimugu, the governorship candidate, APC and others involved in the legal action.

At Wednesday’s hearing, the plaintiff, Abubakar Achimugu, through this council, Josiah Daniel-Ebune, drew the attention of Justice Egwuatu to 16 exhibits tendered by his client to support his amended originating summons requesting for disqualification of Ododo from the governorship race.

He insisted that Ododo breached sections 20, 21, 124, and 147 of the 1999 Constitution and section 159 of the Evidence Act through his failure to resign his appointment with the Kogi State Government at the time he purchased the Expression of interest form and also stood for the primary election that purportedly produced him as a candidate.

Kogi: Court fixes July 18 for judgment.

The aggrieved governorship aspirant urged the Judge to invoke the provisions of the law to disqualify the gubernatorial candidate on the grounds of illegality in the ways and manners he emerged.

The lawyer cited several provisions of the law and Supreme Court judgment in similar matters to determine the status of Ododo at the time he stood for the primary election and asked the Court to grant the request of the plaintiff.

However, in his defence, the governorship candidate asked the Federal High Court to dismiss a suit seeking his disqualification from the race.

Ododo, through his lawyer, Mr Musa Abdullahi SAN, told the Court that contrary to the allegations in the suit, he retired legitimately from the employment of Kogi State as required by law.

At the hearing, the APC candidate maintained that he broke no law at the time he picked the Expression of Interest form of his party and at the time, he stood for the primary election and won.

He said that he tendered his resignation on March 8, 2023, through the office of the State Governor, and that same was received by the appropriate body the same day.

He drew the attention of the Court to section 306 of the 1999 Constitution, adding that whether his resignation was acknowledged, accepted or not, it started taking effect from the date of submission.

Ododo said that the plaintiff in the suit could not contradict his resignation claim with documentary evidence, especially with either pay slips or salary payments.

Besides, the APC governorship candidate argued that the plaintiff jumped the gun in the manner he instituted the suit, adding that the cause of action had not arisen when the case was filed.

He, therefore, asked the Court to rely on his 19 paragraphs affidavit and dismiss the plaintiff’s case for lacking in merit and for being incompetent and baseless.

Kogi: Court fixes July 18 for judgment.

APC adopted the gubernatorial candidate’s position through its counsel Mr Abdulwahab Mohammed, SAN, who demanded that the suit be dismissed with substantial cost.

Achimugu, in the suit, asked the Court to disqualify Ododo from contesting the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State upon his alleged failure to resign his employment with the Kogi State public service before contesting the governorship primary, which he won.

The plaintiff claimed that Ododo breached Section 182 of the Constitution, Section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022, and Article 7 of the APC’s Constitution in participating in the April 14 governorship primary of the APC.

Achimugu argued that Ododo’s failure to resign his appointment with the Kogi State Government, 30 days before the primary, made him ineligible for the November 11, guber poll.

The APC, Ododo, the deputy governorship candidate, Salami Momodu Deedat and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents, respectively.

Labour Party Presents First Witness.

INEC objects to Obi’s exhibits.