KOGI GUBER: THE CASE AGAINST ODODO AND THE APC IS DISMISSED BY THE COURT.

Tunji Wusu –

On Wednesday, a Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja dismissed a lawsuit filed by Senator Smart Adeyemi, a candidate in the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Kogi State, challenging the selection of the party’s candidate, Usman Ododo, on the grounds that it lacked merit.

Justice J.K. Omotosho declared in the case known as “FHC/CS/556/2023 Smart Adeyemi v. APC & 2 Ors” that Adeyemi’s claims were criminal in nature since he claimed that elections did not take place and that the primary election results were fabricated.

He stated that the applicant has to establish the claims of forgery and result falsification beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court stated that it was the applicant’s responsibility to fulfill the burden by producing the forged result or both the original and the faked results, and that failure to do so “is fatal to the applicant’s case.”

Additionally, Justice Omotosho ruled that the applicant’s claim that the election was invalid was unsupported because it only included evidence from his Ward in the State’s Ijumu LGA.

In any case, he claimed, the Respondents, who had provided the monitoring reports from INEC, which was tasked with overseeing the primary election, had refuted the evidence.

“In this case, INEC attached its monitoring report and also attached copies of the result, police report confirming the conduct of the election, and police report signed by the Commissioner of Police, the case of the Applicant has no basis,” the Judge ruled.

As a result, Justice Omotosho dismissed the case for lack of merit.

The judge 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 14th day of April 2023 and I so hold. I have studied all the facts in this matter.

This Honourable Court won’t permit the wishes of a select few, like the applicant’s, to supersede the wishes of the majority. The applicant’s argument is without validity. Thereby, it is discarded.