From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), yesterday, dismissed a suit filed by an aspirant in the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) governorship primaries in Kogi State, Senator Smart Adeyemi, against the emergence of the candidate of the party, Usman Ododo, saying it lacks merit.
Delivering judgement in the suit marked “FHC/CS/556/2023, Smart Adeyemi v. APC & 2 Ors”, Justice J.K. Omotosho held that Adeyemi’s allegations were criminal in nature, as he alleged that elections did not hold and that the produced results were forged.
He said the applicant needed to prove the allegations of forgery and falsification of results beyond reasonable doubts. The court noted that the burden rests on the applicant to produce the forged result or the original and the forged results to discharge the burden, adding that failure to discharge the burden “is fatal to the case of the Applicant.”
Justice Omotosho also held that the allegation that the election did not hold was also not substantiated as the applicant only provided evidence from his Ward in Ijumu LGA. He said, in any case, the evidence was denied by the respondents who attached the monitoring reports of INEC, which has the duty to monitor the election.
“In this case, INEC attached its monitoring report and, also, attached copies of the result, police report confirming the conduct of the election signed by the Commissioner of Police, the case of the applicant has no basis,” he said.
Justice Omotosho, therefore, dismissed the case for lack of merit.
Concluding, he said: “In the final analysis, having reviewed all the evidence in this matter, I have no doubt that the APC primary election result held in all the wards of Kogi State on April 14, 2023, and I hold. This Honourable Court will not allow the will of a few just like that of the applicant to override the will of the majority. The applicant’s case has no merit. It is, hereby, dismissed.”
Meanwhile, the legal battle has shifted to the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal.