The Federal High Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State, on Monday dismissed the suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the just concluded governorship election, Agboola Ajayi, against the qualification of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his deputy, Olayide Adelami, for the election.
Aiyedatiwa was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 16 gubernatorial election while Adelami was his running mate.
Ajayi had filed the suit on June 7, 2024, alleging irregularities and inconsistencies in the names or the arrangement of names of Adelami.
He challenged the qualification of Adelami as the running mate of Governor Aiyedatiwa and prayed the court to disqualify APC from participating in the election.
The PDP standard bearer prayed: “That the first defendant(Adelami) is constitutionally disqualified from contesting the election as Deputy Governorship candidate of APC.
“A declaration that the APC has no validly nominated governorship and deputy governorship candidates for the 2024 election.”
Counsels to the defendants led by Remi Olatubora, SAN, had argued that the documents which were the res of the suit were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) on May 20, 2024 and the Electoral Act states that actions shall be instituted against such action within 14 days.
They also argued that the burden of proof was on Ajayi who alleged that the certificates submitted to INEC by Adelami were fake.
However, Ajayi’s lawyer, M. Ndoka, SAN, informed the court that his client filed his application on June 7, 2024 and argued that INEC published the documents on May 25, 2024.
According to him, the suit was filed within 14 days after the documents became public.
Delivering his judgment, the presiding judge, Justice T.B. Adegoke, ruled that Ajayi lacked the locus to challenge the candidature of the APC governorship and deputy governorship candidates in the last election in the state because he did not participate in the APC nomination exercise that produced the candidates.
Justice Adegoke also ruled that the suit was statute-barred since it was filed four days later than required by the Electoral Act.
The court stated that Ajayi should have begun his suit by filing a writ of summons rather than originating the summons.
It held that it was imperative for the PDP candidate to produce before the court the original copies of the certificates and the fake copies to allow comparison.
Justice Adegoke stated that the issue of fake documents was a crime and should be treated as such.
He therefore ruled that the suit lacked substance and should not be entertained because Ajayi lacked locus.