The Senator Representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Smart Adeyemi, and a son of Former Kogi State Governor, Shuaibu Abubakar and three others, are demanding the immediate cancellation of the All Progressives Congress primary for the selection of the party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship election.
They are also calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect,Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his Vice and the Arewa Consultative Forum to intervene in order to save democracy in Kogi State.
In the suit, they are asked the court to declare as illegal and unlawful, the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by APC which produced Ahmed Ododo as the governorship candidate of the APC in November this year.
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Their grouse was that the alleged unlawful selection of Ododo ran foul of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act as well as Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution.
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They also asked the court for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject and refuse recognition of the name of Ahmed Usman Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he emerged from an invalid primary election.
Similarly, the aggrieved governorship aspirants also prayed for another order compelling APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
In a 35 paragraph affidavit in support of his own originating summons, Senator Adeyemi claimed to have obtained his nomination and expression of interest form at N50 million upon which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election slated for April 14, 2023.
Adeyemi further claimed that while waiting at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that the purported primary election had been conducted and a purported winner had emerged.
