Justice Kayode Adeniyi of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has reserved his judgemnt in the case filed against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun state, Mr. Dapo Abiodun.In the case, a legal practitioner, Abdulrrafiu Baruwa seeking the disqualification of governorship candidate of the party fron contesting the March 9th governorship election in the state.Justice Adeniyi fixed the date after counsel in the matter argued the case.He is expected to deliver judgement in the preliminary objection and the substantive suit argued by counsel in the matter before the election on March 9th.
In hos submission before the court, counsel to the litigant, Mr. Oluwole Aladedoye, urged the court to dismiss all the preliminary objections, insisting that his case was not caught up by the 4th Alteration.
He told the court that the cause of action arose on December 11, 2018, when INEC released the Certified True Copy of the Form CF001 that Abiodun submitted to it.
“This action was filed less that 48 hours after it arose. So it is perfectly within time”, he added.
Abiodun and his party, through their counsel, Mr. Damian Dodo, SAN, and Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, challenged the territorial jurisdiction of the Abuja court to hear the case they said ought to have been filed in Ogun State.
The defendants equally contended that the suit, being a pre-election matter, had become status barred by virtue of the 4th Alteration of the 1999 Constitution.
They argued that under section 285(9) in the 4th Alteration, the Claimant ought to have filed the case 14 days after the infraction he complained of was committed.
According to the 1st and 2nd defendants, the claimant waited till December 13, 2018, to file the action.
They told the court that over 50 days had elapsed before the legal action was instituted.
More so, the defendants argued that sections 177 and 182 of the 1999 constitution, as amended, stipulated conditions that could qualify or disqualify a candidate from contesting governorship election.
The defendants insisted that any discrepancy in the Form CF001 Abiodun submitted to INEC was irrelevant as far as he met all the constitutional requirements, one of which was that he must posses the basic educational qualification (WAEC).
“It is our position that none undertaking of NYSC and attachment of University degree does not qualify as constitutional ground of disqualification. We urge my lord to dismiss this suit with substantial cost”, Ogunwumiju, added.After he had listened to all the parties, Justice Kayode Adeniyi, reserved judgment on the matter, saying it would be delivered not later than March 8, 24 hours before the governorship election.
It will be recalled that Abiodun clinched the governorship ticket of the APC in Ogun State, ahead of the preferred candidate of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Mr. Adekunle Akinlade.
Akinlade had since defected to the Allied People’s Movement, APM, a platform on which he will participate in the Ogun State governorship contest
In the suit, Baruwa, an APC member, asked the court to disqualify Abiodun from the race for giving “false information” in the academic qualification he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Among Baruwa’s prayers are: “Abiodun’s refusal to disclose all his educational qualifications as demanded by INEC in FORM CF 001 amounts to false information.
“APC is not at liberty to apply double standards in clearing or disqualifying persons aspiring for elective offices
“A proper construction of the Forms CF 001 filled by Abiodun and submitted to INEC for the 2015 senatorial election and 2019 governorship election.
“Disqualifying Abiodun as candidate of the APC having regard to the false information contained in his Form CF 001 submitted to INEC.
“Declaring Jimi Lawal, the aspirant with the second highest votes in the APC primary as the candidate of the APC in the governorship poll.”
Abiodun declared only his West African School Certificate (1978) in the Form CF001 submitted to INEC on October 23, 2018.
However, when he ran as APC senatorial candidate for Ogun East in 2015, he claimed to have attended the University of Ife, (graduating in 1986) and Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, Georgia, US (1989) in his INEC form CF001, backed by an affidavit he swore to at the high court, Abeokuta, Ogun state.
Abiodun’s decision not to include the two degrees in the form CF001 submitted for the 2019 election fuelled suspicion that he did not undergo the compulsory national youth service – which is punishable under the law – even though he finished his first degree in 1986.
While some are in doubt that Abiodun attended those higher institutions, Baruwa said he knows that the APC candidate graduated from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) before 30 but neither participated in the mandatory National Youth Service nor obtained any exemption certificate.
Abiodun was born on May 29, 1960 and was 26 in 1986 when he claimed to have finished his first degree. The age limit for national service is 30.
The lawyer said Abiodun, who had earlier swore an oath on his university qualification, cannot be permitted in law to willfully conceal his qualifications for the sole purpose of evading the consequences of such educational qualifications.
