Primaries: Ogun lawmakers sue Abiodun’s aides for ‘not complying with electoral Act’

Two members of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Yusuf Adejojo and Solomon Osho, have dragged some aides of Governor Dapo Abiodun before the Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, over ‘non-resignation’ of their appointments before securing the All Progressives Congress (APC) tickets during the last party primaries. The governor’s aides, Dorego Oluwatobi Aaron and […]

Two members of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Yusuf Adejojo and Solomon Osho, have dragged some aides of Governor Dapo Abiodun before the Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, over ‘non-resignation’ of their appointments before securing the All Progressives Congress (APC) tickets during the last party primaries.

The governor’s aides, Dorego Oluwatobi Aaron and Adebiyi Adeleye, had clinched the APC tickets for Abeokuta South Constituency (I) and Remo North Constituency during the House of Assembly primaries organised by the party in May.

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Dorego was the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abiodun on Housing, while Adeleye was the Special Adviser on Political Affairs.

But the lawmakers presently representing the constituencies, in separate suits, accused the governor’s aides of breaching the Electoral Act which requires them to resign their appointments before contesting party primaries.

In the suits, the plaintiffs joined the APC national, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC (Ogun State chapter), as 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents.

Adejojo, in a suit marked FHC/AB/CS/99/2022, asked the Court to set aside the primary held on the 26th of May, 2022 to determine the 1st defendant’s candidacy for the State House of Assembly election.

Also, Osho, in a suit marked FHC/AB/CS/98/2022, also submitted that, Adeleye, “having not resigned his appointment as Special Adviser on Political Affairs to Ogun State Governor, is not qualified to contest the Ogun State House of Assembly election in view of Section 84 (12) of the electoral Act 2022 and the recent Judgment of the Supreme Court on the Section.”

In one of the reliefs sought, Osho sought an order “setting aside the purported nomination of Mr Adebiyi Adeleye as the candidate of the APC for failure to comply with primary guidelines and constitution of the APC and the constitution of APC and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

When the suits were mentioned on Monday before Justice O.O Oguntoyinbo, counsel to the 1st and 4th respondents, Wale Abeeb-Ajayi, said preliminary objections had been filed against the suits.

Justice Oguntoyinbo adjourned the matter till July 28, 2022, for the hearing of preliminary objections.

Outside the courtroom, counsel to the plaintiffs, Razak Okesiji, told newsmen that: “We are here on a pre-election matter. We are to take up the cases involving Mr Yusuf Adejojo and Mr Solomon Osho. The first respondents whose names have been allegedly submitted to INEC did not resign their appointments and were handpicked.

“The two of them are contesting the primary election that was conducted by the party. In the two cases, the aspirants chosen did not resign their appointments because they work with the Ogun state government and they were still in service as at the date of the primaries. And we have exhibits, their pay slips and other evidence to show that they are still in service as at the date of the primary.”

On his part, Abeeb-Ajayi said he had filed a preliminary objection on the matter for “an abuse of court processes.”

“Well, the matter has been adjourned for our preliminary objections. We are objecting to the suit in the first instance, and we have also filed our defence to the plaintiff’s claim.

“And so, we are set, the court has given us a date for our preliminary objections because we have a feeling that the matter ought not to be in court in the first instance. We await the hearing date for both the preliminary objections and maybe substantive hearing of the matter.”