Lagos 2023: Court orders PDP to replace Reps candidate

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday ordered the People's Democratic Party to submit the name of Abdul Kareem Shittu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party's candidate for Ikorodu Federal Constituency.

Daniel Osiagor, the judge, ruled that Mr. Shittu had won the party's primary in the Lagos State House of Representatives, held on May 24 by a simple majority.

The judge ordered the PDP to submit Mr. Shittu's name to the INEC as a validly nominated candidate for the constituency.

Mr. Osiagor issued the order while delivering judgment in Mr. Shittu's lawsuit challenging the PDP's alleged submission of the name of the third defendant in the lawsuit, AbdulAzeez Awesu, to the INEC as a candidate for the constituency. /p>

The PDP and INEC are the first and second accused.

Giving judgment on the third defendant's preliminary objection on the grounds that the case was statute-barred, Mr. Osiagor held that the plaintiff had not breached section 285 of the Elections Act which prescribed a window of 14 days for pre-election counts.

He said that what Mr. Shittu was complaining about was not the result of the election but the alleged submission of the name of the third defendant to INEC on June 17, which he learned about on June 18, adding that plaintiff's suit takes care of this window limitation.

On the third defendant's objection that the plaintiff did not seek to resolve the dispute through the party's internal mechanism, as stipulated in the party's constitution, the judge held that the rule of the party was subject to electoral law.

He added that the provisions of the party statutes which provide for an internal dispute resolution mechanism cannot deprive the Federal High Court of the jurisdiction freely given to it under the electoral law.

The judge further held that there was no compelling reason given for the June 6 election to be repeated, nor for the cancellation of that May 24 primary election, as the INEC form was signed by the party officials responsible for them.

He also noted that the INEC official countersigned it with the plaintiff's name written on it as the winner of the primary election.

The judge added that to make matters worse, the PDP did not come to court to deny or file a document proving the authenticity of the May 6 result presented by the plaintiff.

In all, Mr. Osiagor granted prayers 1 through 5 on the front of the plaintiff's motion document. He crossed out reliefs 6 and 7, and rejected reliefs 8 and 9.

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The judge warned that politicians should note that the days of rounding people up in the name of elections and later returning to overturn the mandate given by the people were over.

In his affidavit before the court, Mr. Shittu claimed that he participated in the primary election organized by the PDP to elect its candidate for the House of Representatives in Ikorodu on May 24 and obtained the most large number of votes cast.

He claimed that having won the primary election, his name was announced in the presence of all party members who attended and participated in the election and his name was listed on the official ballot of the gone.

Mr. Shittu said the party later canceled the primary election due to a petition written by the third defendant, and the party postponed the election following which it was held on June 6.

He claimed that in the postponed primary election in which he and Awesu AbdulAzeez participated, both got the same number of votes and on that basis and in accordance with party guidelines for the primary election to nominate his candidate, there should be raise.

He added that the party had not held any new elections, but had decided to nominate the third defendant as a candidate for the INEC.

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