APC Gov’ship Aspirant Insists Akeredolu Was Wrongly Nominated, May Appeal Judgment

The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, may be drawn into more legal battles on account of the All Progressives Congress primary election that gave him the governorship ticket of the party in 2020.

A former APC governorship aspirant, Mrs Olajumoke Anifowoshe, has said that while she is not faulting Wednesday’s Federal High Court judgement which threw out her suit for being statute barred, she said “we still need to test some things that are constitutionally provided, that has not been tested before, at the higher court.”

She spoke through her lawyer, Adesina Oke, shortly after the court dismissed her suit.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that Justice Inyang Ekwo had dismissed Anifowese’s suit for being statute barred.

During the hearing, Anifowese’s lawyer had argued that the nomination of Akeredolu was contrary to the guidelines of the APC and the Electoral Act.

But Ekwo ruled that the suit was not filed within 14 days as stipulated in the constitution.

Anifowese is the second governorship aspirant to challenge Akeredolu’s emergence as governorship candidate of the APC.

Dr. Nath Adojutelegan, one of the aspirants, had on August 3, approached the court in Abuja over the July 20, 2020 APC primary election in the state.

He had sought for an order to nullify the victory of Akeredolu while faulting the party’s primary election process and had prayed the court to order a fresh election.

But Justice Okong Abang had on December 16, dismissed the case for “want of jurisdiction”.

Speaking to journalists regarding today’s (Wednesday) judgement against his client, Oke, said they might take the matter to a higher court so that the judges could look at other issues it raised in the suit.

According to him, in the judge’s verdict, he “did not go into the substantive suit”.

His words: “This is not the last court, there are still other courts that can give final decisions on some of the issues that has been raised here today; we are going to look at the judgement very well with our client and we need to decide whether to take it from there or to leave it at this point.”

Explaining why his client sought redress in court, he claimed that “the nomination of Mr. Akeredolu is not regular, it’s invalid by virtue of the guidelines of the APC and the constitution and even the electoral act.”

However, he admitted that there were technicalities in the case, on which “his lordship decided on”.

On his part, Akeredolu’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi, said that his client was ready to prove his case even if the plantiff chooses to go to a higher court.