2023: Court Dismisses PDP Suit Seeking Kwara Gov’s Disqualification

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seeking an order disqualifying Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, from participating in the 2023 governorship election in the State.

Handing down the judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo dismissed the suit for being incompetent and an abuse of court process.

He said that the PDP lacked the right to sue since it wasn’t a participant in the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election exercise that produced Governor AbdulRazaq as a candidate for the March 11, 2023 governorship election.

The judge added that Section 29(5) of the Electoral Act 2022 provides that only an aspirant who participated in a party’s political primary exercise can seek to disqualify another for giving false information as in this particular case.

Justice Ekwo said that there is no provision in the Electoral Act or the 1999 Constitution that gives a political party that legal right to challenge the candidacy of a contestant of another party.

The judge further observed that the governorship primaries being an internal affair of the APC, completely rules out the part of the PDP in seeking to dictate how the party conducts its affairs.

The suit which was filed on August 4, 2022 had urged the court to make an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delist the name of AbdulRazaq as a candidate of the APC for 2023 Kwara governorship election.

The party also asked the court to declare that Governor AbdulRazaq had presented a forged WAEC certificate to the APC and INEC.