The All Progressives Congress, or APC, is in greater legal problems now that the Federal High Court in Abuja has approved a new lawsuit attempting to exclude all of its candidates from running in the general elections of 2023.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, filed the lawsuit with the court with the filing number FHC/ABJ/CS/1864/2022.
PDP is specifically questioning the legitimacy of the selection process that produced both APC national officers and its candidates for the upcoming elections.
It is requesting that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, be ordered to disqualify every candidate that the APC’s Extraordinary Convention Committee, which is chaired by Governor Mai Mala Buni, has nominated.
Every nomination made by the Governor Buni-led Committee, according to the Plaintiff’s legal team, led by Mr. Ayo Ajibade, SAN, was done so in flagrant contravention of current provisions of both the Electoral Act of 2022 and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The Federal High Court’s ruling from September 30, 2022, which declared all actions and activities undertaken by the Governor Buni-led committee to be illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional, served as the foundation for PDP’s lawsuit, which included the nomination of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola for the recently held gubernatorial election in Osun State.
The Plaintiff pointed out that the high court had declared invalid the nominations of Oyetola and his running mate, Benedict Alabi, as APC candidates for the governorship election in its ruling delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite, because Governor Buni had submitted their names to INEC in violation of Section 183 of the Constitution and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act 2022.
The APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shetima, as well as all of the party’s governorship candidates and their appointees, were listed as defendants among the 53 people named in the PDP’s new lawsuit.
The lawsuit also calls for the party’s candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives to be disqualified.
The lawsuit has already been given to Justice Inyang Ekwo, who has scheduled a mention for November 22.
The court further ordered that all defendants should receive service for every application process.
