Hope of the former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, to unseat his successor, Dapo Abiodun, dims, as a Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital sacked the preferred candidate of the former Governor, Barrister Biyi Oegbeye of the African Democratic Party, ADC, on Friday.

The Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Friday sacked the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Biyi Otegbeye.

The court, in a separate judgement, also sacked all the 26 House of Assembly candidates of the same Party.

While Otegbeye and the Assembly candidates were dragged to court by the Labour Party over alleged non-compliance with Electoral Act in the conduct of the primary which produced them, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC also dragged the Assembly candidates before the Court n a separate suit.

Delivering the judgements, Justice Akintayo Aluko nullified Otegbeye's candidacy as well as the party's State Assembly candidates.

Aluko held that the primary elections which produced Otegbeye and the state assembly candidates were not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The court affirmed that the primary elections were held in violation of the Electoral Act.

The court ruled that Otegbeye and the assembly candidates are not the valid candidates of ADC for the 2023 governorship and state assembly elections.

The court therefore ordered INEC to expunge names of Otegbeye and the 26 legislative candidates from the list of candidates cleared for next year's elections.

Reacting, counsel to the 2nd and 3rd defendants (ADC and all the candidates), Tunde Falola hinted that the party would study details of the judgement and proceed on an appeal.

Falola said "The court has given judgement in its own wisdom and it is in favour of the plaintiff. As you know, this is a contest, one way or the other it has to go the way it goes, but that is not the end of the case, we have applied and we have indicated to the court that we are very interested in having access to the judgement as quick as possible with the view to sit down and analyse the judgement with the view of taking further steps in respect of the judgement.

"Constitutionally, every Nigerian, every party before the court whose judgement has been given against has the right, constitutional right to approach the higher courts and ventilate his or her grievances.

“There are some areas which we feel we disagree with judgement of his lordship, that we intend to explore before the court of appeal.

"There are some areas which we feel that the positions of the lordship do not accord with the position of law, that is what we intend to explore."

The LP Legal Counsel, Monday Mawah described the judgment as welcome development.

Mawah said, "Simply put, what transpired in court today is victory for rule of law and democracy. We brought an action to the court challenging the decision of INEC to countenance the list of candidates that purportedly emerged in primaries that never took place by the ADC.

"When the final list of candidates was published, we were surprised to see the names of candidates of ADC and then we went to court to say if the Electoral Act says INEC must monitor primaries and then a primary was purportedly done without inviting INEC, that primary in the eye of the law is invalid.

“The court answered that question in the negative that the primary in which INEC was never invited can never be valid in the eye of the law and that any candidate that purportedly emerged from such primary must be removed and that was what the court did today.

"The court agreed with us and said, ‘in the eye of the law there was no primary,’ since there was no primary any name purportedly put on that list for ADC should be removed."

In the suit filed against the Assembly candidate in Ifo I State Constituency, Justice Aluko maintained that since the 3rd defendant, INEC, agreed that it did not monitor the primary, the action violates the electoral act and the Constitution.

Speaking on the facts of the suit, counsel to the plaintiff, Adewale Adegoke, said the suit is to challenge the candidature of ADC House of Assembly candidate, Wemino Owolabi, as he was declared for Ifo 1 state constituency, for 2022 house of Assembly elections in Ogun state.

“Our contention in the suit was that Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the 3rd defendant in the suit, has violated a provision in the electoral law with the declaration of the 1st defendant as the validly nominated candidate of the ADC, and the court agreed with our submissions, that the 1st defendant was originally an aspirant under APC, before crossing over to ADC.

“The court also agreed that the supervision of primary which they claimed to have done did not hold because INEC did not monitor it, and INEC wrote a report to that effect which motivated our written of originating summon to that effect.

“What INEC was called to come and monitor was house of Assembly primary but what they saw them conducting was a governorship primary which was contrary to notice sent to INEC.

“The primaries were also held at a single venue which was at Agbeloba, State Headquarters of ADC, instead of holding the same primaries in the constituencies where they were expected to produce candidates.

“It was based on these reasons that the court agreed with us that the primaries that produced the 1st defendant was not done in accordance with the provision of the Constitution and the electoral act.

The INEC was then directed to remove the name of the 1st defendant from its website.

But the 1st defendant and INEC have right of appeal.

He said the order also goes for other assembly candidates of ADC in the State.