Court Retrains INEC from Recognizing Dapo Abiodun as Ogun APC Candidate

A Federal High Court in Abeokuta has restrained  the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the All Progressives Congress (APC), its National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the National Secretary, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, from recognizing Prince Dapo Abiodun as the candidate of the party for the 2019 general election for the office of the Governor of Ogun State.

Justice Ibrahim Watila, granted the interim injunction on October 17, 2018 after hearing a motion exparte in Suit FHC/AB/CS/125/2018, filed by three chieftains of the party from the three senatorial districts in the state.

After hearing from the counsel to the applicants, J. Olabode Makinde, the Judge retrained the defendants from recognizing Abiodun as the candidate of the party for the 2019 general election for the office of the Governor of Ogun State.

However, in a consequential order, the Judge restrained the APC national body from forwarding any name as the gubernatorial candidate for the 2019 general election for the office of the governor of Ogun State.

He also ordered the INEC not to act on any of the names as submitted by the plaintiffs or the defendants.

The case was adjoined to Friday, October 19, 2018, by the presiding judge who also ordered the accelerated hearing of the case.

Three chieftains of thee party in Ogun State, Alhaji Bola Adeyemi (Ogun Central Senatorial District), Architect Kuoye Olayiwola (Ogun West Senatorial District) and Barrister Musbau Oyefeso (Ogun East Senatorial District), had approached the court to stop the defendants from presenting any other candidate for the 2019 general election apart from the one conducted by the Executive Committee of the state APC which conducted its primary elections and were also observed, monitored and authenticated by INEC, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice before the court.

They are also seeking for such further consequential or ancillary orders as the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.

The court ordered the defendants not to act on any of the names as submitted either by the plaintiffs  or the defendants for the APC gubernatorial election candidates for the 2019 general elections for the office of the Governor of Ogun State pending the hearing of the Motion on Notice and Originating Summons.

The Ogun State chapter of the APC had declared the party’s consensus candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, winner of a primary election conducted on October 2, 2018 in the state.

The party Chairman, Chief Derin Adebiyi, declared Akinlade winner while addressing journalists at the secretariat of the party in Abeokuta.

He said Akinlade, the consensus candidate of the Yewa Elders Council in a direct primary, polled 190,987 votes out of 201,620 valid votes cast across the 236 wards in the state.

Other aspirants who participated in the primaries, according to him, were a banker- turned politician, Jimi Lawal; a former Deputy Governor, Senator Adegbenga Kaka;  immediate past Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Otunba Bimbo Ashiru; oil mogul,  Prince Dapo Abiodun; and Abayomi Hunye.

While reeling out votes scored by other aspirants,

Adebiyi said Lawal came second scoring 5,046, Abiodun came third with 3,648, Ashiru came fourth with 898, Kaka came fifth with 833, while Hunye got 208 votes in the sixth position.

Adebiyi said the party used the direct primary for the election, adding that it was monitored by officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agents.

He said the state executive committee and the members of the party believed the APC’s National Working Committee panel sent to the state had been “highly compromised.”

Adebiyi said the primary was conducted after three consecutive postponements by the Muhammad Indabawa- led seven-man panel sent by the NWC of the APC to the state.

Adebiyi said they were suspicious of the panel when it said it would be using ballot papers to conduct the primary in the state.

He said, “We are working within the ambits of the constitution and guidelines of the party.

“It was emphatically stated that the election would hold on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.”

The APC National Working Committee panel, led by Muhammad Indabawa, had on October 3, 2018 announced Abiodun as the winner of the election.

He was said to have polled the highest votes having scored 102,305 votes.

Jimi Lawal polled 51,153 votes; Otunba Bimbo Ashiru scored 29,764 votes; Senator Adegbenga Kaka, 17,771; Adekunle Akinlade, 23,443; and Abayomi Hunye, 9,610.