Court upholds APC’s choice of indirect primary for Kogi gov poll

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday dismissed a suit
challenging the decision of the All Progressives Congress to adopt
indirect primary for nominating its candidate for the forthcoming
November 16, 2019 governorship election in Kogi State.

The judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, upheld the preliminary
objections filed by the APC to challenge the suit, in ruling that
the suit had been caught by the statute of limitation.

He said it was needless to go into the proprietary of the
party’s choice of indirect primary since the court lacked the
jurisdiction to hear the case on merit, having been
statute-barred.

He held that the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/883/2019, was a
pre-election matter which ought to have been heard and determined
within 180 days as provided by Section 285(10) of the Nigerian
Constitution.

According to the judge, although the suit was filed only on July
18, 2019, it was clearly premised on another one marked
FHC/ABJ/CS/833/2019 which, instead of being determined within 180
days, was only ruled upon on Monday.

The judge, on the grounds of statute limitation, in the earlier
judgment on Monday, dismissed the said foundational suit which was
instituted by the Chairman and Secretary of a parallel executive
committee of the APC in Kogi State, Haddy Ametuo and Tam Adejoh,
respectively.

The said foundational suit was instituted against the APC, and
Abdullahi Bello, who is the Chairman of the Governor Yahaya
Bello-backed faction of the party in the state.

The Bello-led faction of the APC in the state is recognised by
the national bodies of the party.

The APC, which opposed the two suits ruled upon by the court on
Monday, was represented by Mr. Paul Daudu.

Delivering judgment on the suit challenging the APC’s adopted
mode of primary election in the state, Justice Taiwo held, “I do
not intend to waste judicial time on this suit FHC/ABJ/CS/883/2019
in view of the ruling on the suit FHC/ABJ/CS/581/2018 read a few
minutes ago, dismissing the suit for being caught by statute of
limitation as provided under Section 285(10) of the
Constitution.”

He ruled that “it will be pointless to consider the proprietary
of this suit” when its foundational suit had been dismissed.

“The court, not being an academic institution, does not engage
in academic exercise,” the judge ruled.

He added, “This suit has been spent and its resolution has
become unnecessary in view of my earlier judgment.

“Answering the questions will bear no consequence on the dispute
between the parties.

“I therefore have no choice other than to dismiss the suit in
its entirety and I accordingly dismiss it.”

The suit was instituted by Destiny Aromeh, Isah Abubakar, Noah
Aku and Joy Onu, who are members of a parallel executive committee
of the APC in Kogi State.

It was instituted against the APC as the sole defendant.

The plaintiffs represented by Mr. Oluwole Aladedoye, had urged
the court to order the party not to adopt indirect primary to pave
the way for a direct primary which would allow all card-carrying
members of the party to vote.

He said if the National Working Committee of the party was not
stopped, the party would go ahead to adopt indirect primary and his
clients, not being the faction recognised by the national
leadership of the party, would be “shut out” and not allowed to
vote as delegates at the primary.

Aladedoye noted that the National Working Committee of the party
adopted the indirect primary for Kogi State election in disregard
to a pending suit on the disputed leadership of the party in the
state.