Court dismisses Adebutu’s suit challenging Kashamu as Ogun PDP gov candidate

A Federal Capital Territory High Court on Monday dismissed a
legal action instituted by a member of the House of
Representatives, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, to challenge the
nomination of Senator Buruji Kashamu as the governorship candidate
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State for the March
2, 2019 governorship election.

The court held that Adebutu, who was nominated by the National
Working Committee of PDP for the governorship election, cannot
maintain his suit against the defendants because the primary
election that produced him was conducted in violation of a
subsisting court judgment.

Justice Ajoke Adepoju, in a judgment in the suit filed by
Adebutu to challenge the refusal of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept his candidacy, said that the
PDP National Working Committee acted in bad faith by disregarding a
subsisting judgment of a Federal High Court to produce the
candidate.

Justice Adepoju said that since PDP was a party in the judgment
of the Honourable Justice I.N. Buba, the judgment of the court was
binding on it and must be obeyed and respected so as to protect the
sanctity of court in the interest of the rule of law.

The judge agreed that it was the National Working Committee of
the party (PDP) that reserves the power to conduct a primary
election for the nomination of candidates for the 2019 general
election but said that the National Working Committee must not do
so in violation of any court judgment.

Justice Adepoju held that the PDP National Working Committee
cannot hold a valid primary election without recourse to the Ogun
State chapter of the party or outright approval of the party until
the judgment against it by Justice Buba has been set aside by a
higher court.

Justice Adepoju said that Hon. Adebutu’s case cannot be
maintained to declare him a governorship candidate because the PDP
National Working Committee which conducted the primary election
that produced him as a candidate last year did so in violation of a
judgment of a Federal High Court delivered by Justice Ibrahim
Buba.

The judge, therefore, dismissed the suit in its entirety.

The judge said that she arrived at the conclusion because of the
need for sanctity and judgments of courts to be protected by
parties or individuals, adding that PDP did not do well by
disobeying the judgment of Justice Buba with the way it conducted
its primary election in Ogun State last year.

Justice Adepoju said that although Hon. Adebutu was able to
establish that his own primary election was conducted by the
appropriate organ of PDP but that he was not entitled to be
declared the candidate because of the circumstances that surrounded
the conduct of the primary election in breach of a judgment that
has not been set aside.

Earlier, the court had dismissed the objection raised by Kashamu
against the case of Adebutu on the ground of jurisdiction, adding
that the House of Representatives member has the option in law
either to file his case in Abeokuta, Ogun State or in Abuja as he
did.

Senator Buruji Kashamu and his counterpart in the House of
Representatives, Hon Ladi Adebutu have been laying claim and
counterclaim to the party’s governorship ticket having emerged from
two parallel primaries conducted in the state.

But in the suit filed by Adebutu with References No.
FCT/FT/CV/29/2018, he prayed the Abuja High Court to declare him as
the authentic PDP candidate for the 2019 governorship Poll in Ogun
State.

His ground in the suit argued by his counsel, Mr Patrick Ediale,
was that he emerged as a candidate from the primary election
conducted by the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee of
the party.

The House of Representatives member also hinged his claim on the
ground that he was not a party to any court case or judgment
against that may have any binding effect on him.

But Kashamu, who was represented by Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), urged
the court to dismiss the suit on the ground of lack of
jurisdiction.

Izinyon told Justice Ajoke Adepoju that the primary elections in
dispute were conducted in Ogun State and that the appropriate place
to institute the suit remains Ogun State in the face of the
law.

Besides, the senior counsel submitted that the primary election
that produced Kashamu was the authentic and lawful one having been
conducted in line with the judgment of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the
Federal High Court, Lagos.

In the judgment exhibited in the court, Justice Buba had in 2016
ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and
PDP to recognize and accept, for purposes of the 2019 Nigeria
General Elections, only candidates of the PDP in Ogun State that
have been nominated through primaries endorsed or conducted by the
Adebayo Dayo-led new officers of the PDP in Ogun State.