Ekiti 2022: Court Strikes Out Ojo’s Suit Against Oyebanji’s Victory

A suit filed by a contestant in the January 27 All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election, Mr. Kayode Ojo, challenging the victory of the governor-elect, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, was on Thursday struck out by a Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.

The preliminary objection of the counsel to Oyebanji, Mr. Kabir Akingbolu, that the writ of summons and statement of claims of Ojo were defective which dealt a fatal blow to the case, was upheld by the court.

The presiding judge, Justice Babs Kuewumi, in a judgment on Thursday threw out Ojo’s case and agreed with the Oyebanji’s counsel that the discrepancies in the originating processes had rendered the case invalid.

Justice Kuewumi held that the names of counsel on the Plaintiff’s originating summons and statement and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) stamp ran contrary which is against the law rendering the suit defective and incompetent.

While the name on the NBA stamp of one of the lawyers of Ojo reads “Moroof Bolanle,” the one that appears on the list of lawyers submitted for the case reads “Olayinka Bolanle.”

A further scrutiny on the Plaintiff’s writ of summons and statement of claim, the judge said, revealed two different signatures which renders the suit invalid ab initio.

“The signatures on the writ of summons and the statement of claim are not the same. There is no jurisdiction, there is no case. I will make copies of my judgment available to counsels tomorrow.

“Having ruled on the issue of objection, there is no further judgment to deliver. The Plaintiff is free to approach the higher court for appeal,” the judge held.

Earlier, Counsel to Ojo, Mr Taiwo Ogunmoroti, had urged the court to make the judgment available to him for perusal and possible further action.

But counsel to Oyebanji, Mr. Akingbolu, while speaking with journalists after the judgment was delivered, expressed satisfaction with the verdict, which he said was in line with the law and the rules of the court.

Akingbolu said: “Before a process is filed in court, a known lawyer must sign it but many lawyers subscribed to this originating process but there was only one signature. The law is that you must tick the name of the person who signed it and this was not done in this case.

“Again, the NBA seal, which is the authority of office for a lawyer to signal document was affixed but the name on the seal was different from the one on all the process.

“So, there was no way the court could determine whether it was signed by a clerk or whether it was signed by a street urchin or a lawyer. On the ground, the court has rightly thrown away the case and the whole thing has crumbled.”

There was heavy presence of security agents in and around the court as operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police checked vehicles and individuals entering the premises.

The judgment was consequent upon the adoption of written addresses by parties in the suit last Friday, July 29, 2022 in which their counsels urged the court to uphold their statement of claims and grant them the reliefs they were seeking.

Other defendants in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission (3rd), Ayo Adegbite (4th), Adeoye Aribasoye (5th), Vincent Bewaji (6th), Goke Olajide (7th), Lateef Akanle (8th), Richard Apolola (9th), Kayode Fasakin (10th), Adu Joseph (11th) and Teju Okuyiga (12th).

The rest of the defendants are Olumide Fadipe (13th), Dele Oloje (14th), Victor Adeniyi (15th), Folorunso Olabode (16th), Deji Ajayi (17th), Sunkanmi Onipede (18th), Kemi Olaleye (19th) and the Secretary and Members of the Ekiti APC 2022 Gubernatorial Primary Electoral Committee (20th).

The 4th-19th defendants served as Chairmen of the Electoral Committees/Returning Officers in the 16 Local Government Areas during the Ekiti APC Governorship Primary held across the state.

Dissatisfied with the conduct of the APC primary primary, Ojo approached the court to challenge what he called “gross irregularities” faulting the use of individuals he described as political appointees as electoral committee/returning officers.

According to the official result declared by the Chairman of the Ekiti APC 2022 Governorship Primary Election Committee, Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State, Oyebanji polled 101, 703 votes to defeat Ojo who came second with 767 votes.