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.
Anderson Asemota, Monday Mawah, a deputy governorship candidate, and Lamidi Apapa, the Labour Party’s acting national chairman, filed the lawsuit.
The defendants included the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Olumide Akpata, and the Labour Party.
Justice Omotosho held that the claimants lacked the locus standi to have approached the court on the issue because they did not participate in the party’s primary on 23 February 2024, from which Akpata emerged as the party’s candidate.
The judge also found that the issue concerned the nomination of a candidate, which forms part of the internal affairs of a political party.
He held that it is the party that determines who its candidate is and proceeded to hold that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit.
The judge further held that even if the court were to assume jurisdiction, the suit itself lacked merit.
Justice Omotosho noted that contrary to the claimants’ arguments, the Court of Appeal nullified the orders made by a high court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including the order restraining Julius Abure-led leadership of the party.
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.
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