The Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja on Monday struck out a pre-election suit of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) aimed to upturn the election of Gov.Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress as governor of Kogi State.
The suit which was pre-election matter was instituted against the election of Governor Bello of the APC was struck out due to lack of diligent prosecution by the claimants.
The case was filed by Mr Sule Solomon Itanyi of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and two others against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and one other.
The suit which was filed on November 4, 2019, the claimants argued that INEC refused the party (Action Democratic Party) to substitute Mr Ndakwo Abdulrahman Tanko, its original governorship candidate for Mr Sule Solomon Itanyi prior to the conduct of the governorship election.
The 1st respondent (INEC), and the 2nd respondent (APC) challenged the jurisdiction of the Court on the ground that the case was filed outside the mandatory statutory period of 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the cause of action, the 180 days provided for the trial court to hear and determine the suit had also lapsed due to negligence from the part of the claimants.
In his ruling, Justice DU Okorowo upheld the objections of the respondents on the two main grounds, saying that the suit is ‘statute-barred.
Justice Okorowo subsequently struck out for lack of diligent prosecution by the claimants.
Recalled that Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on Saturday, July 4 had upheld the election victory of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, dismissing the Appeal filed by the pdp candidate Musa Wada in the November 19 election.
Content created and supplied by: Ridbell (via Opera News )
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