The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday struck out a suit seeking nullification of the submission of the name of Ademola Adeleke as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the July 26 election.
The trial judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu struck out the suit on the ground that the plaintiff lacked the legal right (locus standi) to file the suit.
The plaintiff in the suit, Awoyemi Oluwatayo Lukman, 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 the electoral body on grounds of alleged unlawful action.
The grouse of the plaintiff was that Adeleke’s name was hurriedly submitted by PDP on March 11, 2022, as against between March 14 to 18 as contained in the INEC guidelines.
Adeleke’s name, having not been submitted within the period fixed by INEC, the plaintiff asked the court to declare the submission, illegal, unlawful, null, and void and be set aside.
He 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.
But, Justice Egwuatu, in his judgment, struck out the suit on the ground that Awoyemi lacked locus standi to have instituted the case.
The judge held also that the suit was statute-barred having been filed 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.
