Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a lawsuit attempting to overturn Olumide Akpata‘s nomination as the Labour Party’s candidate in Edo State’s governorship election on September 21.
Justice Omotosho ruled in favour of Akpata’s lawyer, Johnson Usman (SAN), who argued that the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to file the complaint.
The lawsuit was filed by Anderson Asemota, Monday Mawah, a deputy governorship candidate, and Lamidi Apapa, the Labour Party’s acting national chairperson.
The defendants comprised INEC, Olumide Akpata, and the Labour Party.
Justice Omotosho ruled that the claimants lacked the locus standi to petition the court on the issue since they did not participate in the party’s primary on February 23, 2024, from which Akpata emerged as the party’s nominee.
The judge further determined that the matter was related to the nomination of a candidate, which is part of a political party’s internal affairs.
He ruled that the party picks its nominee and that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
The judge also ruled that even if the court did accept jurisdiction, the complaint lacked merit.
Justice Omotosho stated that, contrary to the plaintiffs’ allegations, the Court of Appeal overturned rulings issued by a high court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including the order restraining Julius Abure’s party leadership.
The judge said, “This means that the third claimant (Apapa) and those who were in acting capacity with him immediately had all their decisions nullified and non-existent.
“Thus, any letter written by the said acting executives, or any decisions including the purported consensus primary election which produced the 1st claimant (Asemota) are all non-existent, void and of no effect whatsoever.
“It is a trite principle of law that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.
“The entire foundation upon which the claimants’ claim rests has been thoroughly demolished by the decision of the Court of Appeal.
“The argument that the decision of the high court of the FCT was valid at the time when the primary election was conducted may be true to some extent, especially if the Court of Appeal had yet to hand down its judgment.
“The judgment, however, destroys this argument and ensures that the first claimant for all intents and purposes cannot be deemed to be a candidate who emerged from a valid primary election.
“Thus the 1st claimant cannot claim that his name should be accepted by the 1st defendant as the candidate of the 3rd defendant for the governorship elections in Edo state in 2024,” Justice Omotosho said.
The claimants had prayed the court to, among other things, order INEC to publish Asemota’s name as the winner of the Edo Labour Party Governorship Primary Election, having emerged as the consensus candidate and winner of the 22 February primary conducted by the primary election committee set up by the party’s national working committee (NWC) under Apapa’s leadership.