The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Smart Adeyemi, son of former Kogi State Governor, Shuaibu Abubakar Audu and three others have demanded immediate cancellation of the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC’s) primary for the selection of the party’s candidate in the forthcoming November 11 governorship election in Kogi State.
Daily Times report that, In their separate suits marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 and FHC/ABJ/ CS/557/2023, filed by Senator Adeyemi and Shuaib Abubakar Audu 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 for November this year election.
According to Daily times, The selection of Ododo, according to the disgruntled candidates for the governorship, violated Article 20 of the APC Constitution, Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act, and Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution.
In addition to Adeyemi and Shuaib Abubakar Audu, other candidates who have already started legal proceedings against the results of the primary election include Professor Stephen Ocheni, a former minister of state for education, Martala Yakubu Ajaka, a former national publicity secretary of the APC, and Dr. Sanusi Ohiare.
Following similar complaints of fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the supposed primary election, a Federal High Court in Abuja earlier declared the party's first primary election invalid.
Justice James Omotoso had directed the APC to hold a new primary in accordance with the rules of the law, party rules, and APC's constitution.
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuits, among others, are asking the court to invalidate the supposed primary election by using Section 177 of the Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act, and Article 20 of the APC Constitution.
On the grounds that Ahmed Usman Ododo won a rigged primary election, they further urged the court to issue an order ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject and refuse recognition of his name as the APC governorship candidate.
Daily times report that, The two candidates for governor also asserted that the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, who was supposed to preside over and declare the winner of the primary election, fled Kogi State in irritation in order to distance himself from the fraud that pervaded the primary election.
Adeyemi and Audu called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, and the Arewa Consultative Forum to step in to save democracy in Kogi State in an interview with journalists outside the Federal High Court in Abuja, where the lawsuits were filed.
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