By Peter Oriyomi
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out a suit seeking nullification of submission of name of Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke as the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 16, 2022 Osun State governorship election.
The presiding judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, on Thursday, struck out the suit on the ground that the plaintiff, Awoyemi Oluwatayo Lukman, lacked locus standi to institute the case.
The plaintiff had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP and Adeleke before the court seeking order to void and set aside the submission of Adeleke’s name to INEC on ground of alleged unlawful action.
The plaintiff told.the court that Adeleke’s name was hurriedly submitted by the PDP on March 11 instead to do so between March 14 and 18 as contained in the INEC guidelines.
The plaintiff said because Adeleke’s name was not submitted within the specified period by the INEC, therefore, the court should declare the submission, illegal, unlawful, null and void and be set aside.
The plaintiff also claimed that INEC must be bound by its official guidelines and that anything done outside the guidelines is against the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
However, in his judgment, Justice Obiora Egwuatu struck out the suit on the ground that the said Awoyemi Oluwatayo Lukman lacked locus standi to have instituted the case.
The judge held also that the suit was statute barred having been fixed outside the 14 days stipulated by section 285 of the 1999 Constitution that all pre-election suits must be filed within 14 days whereas, the instant suit was filed after 28 days.
