Kogi Guber: Adeyemi, Abubakar Others Insist APC Primary Did Not Hold

The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Smart Adeyemi, Shuaibu Abubakar, and others have filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja, seeking the nullification of the recently held gubernatorial primary election.

They insist that the primary that held on April 14 was not conducted as the results were written against “all electoral norms and extant laws” guiding the conduct of elections.

Outside Adeyemi and Abubakar, three other governorship aspirants who have filed similar suits include former Minister of State for Education, Professor Stephen Ocheni, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Martala Yakubu Ajaka, and Dr Sanusi Ohiara.

Recall the outcome of the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kogi State, was rejected by some aspirants after Ahmed Usman Ododo was produced as its governorship candidate.

Adeyemi said Ododo is Bello’s cousin and his emergence is against all natural justice.

However, Senator Adeyemi’s suit and that of Abubakar are instituted on their behalf separately by Dr Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju.

The petitioners in an interview with journalists at Federal High Court in Abuja, where the suits were filed called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima and the Arewa Consultative Forum to intervene in order to save democracy in Kogi State.

In the suits marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 and FHC/ABJ/ CS/557/2023, filed By Adeyemi and Abubakar respectively, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by APC and which produced Ahmed Usman Ododo as the governorship candidate of the APC in November this year.

They predicated their case on the grounds that the alleged unlawful selection of Ododo breached Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act, and Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution.

The plaintiffs amongst others are asking the court to invoke Section 177 of the Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act, and Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution, to declare the purported primary election invalid.

They want the court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to reject and refuse recognition of the name of Ahmed Usman Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he emerged from an invalid primary election.

Also, the aggrieved governorship aspirants are seeking an order compelling APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.

In a 35-paragraph affidavit in support of his own originating summons, Senator Adeyemi claimed to have obtained his nomination and expression of interest form at N50 million upon which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election slated for April 14, 2023.

Adeyemi claimed that while waiting at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that the purported primary election had been conducted and a winner had emerged.

Briefing the press shortly after filing the suit, Adeyemi and Abubakar described the purported primary that produced Ododo as a phenomenal rape of democracy and must not be allowed to stand if democracy is to thrive in the country.

Adeyemi alleged that the governor had asked all the aspirants to step down for his preferred candidate who is from the same zone as him, adding that it is the turn of Kogi West which had not produced a governor in the history of the state to do so.

He, however, said that some aspirants have been subdued already.

The senator assured that he would fight the injustice to the last in the interest of Kogi people and democracy “If election was rigged, we know that election was rigged, but election never took place at all”, he said.

Similarly, Abubakar stated that what happened in Kogi State during the purported primary election was contrary to the constitution, and should not be allowed to stand.

They accused the governor of Kogi State, Mr Yahaya Bello of manipulating the whole process

Amongst other wrong steps, the aspirants alleged that Governor Bello presided over a panel where figures were concocted in favour of Ododo to announce his name as winner of the purported primary election.

The two governorship aspirants further claimed that Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, who ought to preside and announced the winner of the primary election left Kogi State in annoyance to dissociate himself from the falsehood that characterized the primary election.