Court Throws Out Case Contesting Ajimobi’s Eligibility To Contest Last Year Governorship Election

Governor Abiola Ajimobi

It was another day of judicial victory for Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, as a case filed to challenge his nomination to contest last general election was thrown out for lack of jurisdiction

A Federal High Court  sitting  in Ibadan  and presided over by Justice Abimbola Adejumo-Obaseki,  dismissed the suit instituted against him and two others by Professor Oluwole Akinboade, one of the aspirants under the broom party.

Akinboade, a  gubernatorial aspirant in the last election had sued  Ajimobi,  the  Action  Congress  of Nigeria ( ACN) and the  Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC).

He  prayed the court in the suit  to hold that  Senator Ajimobi was not duly nominated by the ACN for the governorship election of 2011 ,  he urged  the court to order for the nullification of  his nomination among others.

But the judge  in the judgement declared that section 87 sub sections 1 ,and 4,  of  the  Electoral  Act of 2010 as amended gave the political party in Nigeria the power to pick their candidates to contest different elective positions ,  while  section 87 sub sections  9 and 10 of the act  outlawed the court to adjudicate on  the subject matter.

 The trial judge  averred  that  since   the plaintiff  admitted that he did not participate in the primary as governorship aspirant of the ACN because the said primary  did  not hold , he lacked the  jurisdiction to institute the case under the law.

Justice Adejumo-Obaseki  said  the plaintiff’s  position was tantamount to a probating and reprobating because in evidence he admitted that all the aspirants including himself  had agreed that the governorship candidate for the Oyo state in 2011 election shall be picked by consensus but only decided to file the litigation after the decision worked against him.

She added  that the entire position of the plaintiff in the case according to  section 87  of 2010  Electoral Act as amended was unconstitutional  ,unjustifiable, lacked  merit and  was then  dismissed .

The  counsel to  Ajimobi,  Barrister Abiodun Amole,  thanked the court for the judgment and emphasized that it will allow the governor to concentrate more on  governance.