Segun Sowunmi, a factional candidate for governor of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, had filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal in Abuja, asking for the dissolution of the Ogun PDP executives from the state to the ward level.
In the same vein, the court denied Sowunmi’s request to instruct the Ogun PDP to form a three-person committee to manage the party’s operations. The appeal court determined that Sowunmi’s case was an intra-party matter, which the court lacks jurisdiction over, in a lead ruling written by Justice Chidi Uwa.
The court determined that Sowunmi’s lawsuit did not qualify as a pre-election matter because it was based on Sowunmi’s claim that the Ogun PDP was biased against him by buying Oladipupo Adebutu’s governorship nomination form, according to the certified true copy of the judgment that our correspondent sighted on August 15. The incident that sparked the appeal is not a pre-election matter, according to Justice Uwa. The acquisition of a nomination form for an intended political party candidate, which is obviously the problem at hand, was not covered by Section 258(14)(a-c). If it was intended, it would have been stated in the section.
The appellant requested an order dissolving all of the PDP’s Ogun State executives, from the state to the ward level, with immediate effect. Members of the first respondent did not make decisions through the legal system. Additionally, the court is not in a position to prohibit members of the executive committee of the first respondent from the state to ward level from taking part in, leading, or overseeing any congress in Ogun State, which was scheduled to begin on April 23, 2022.
