Court sacks Ekiti Assembly member

The Ado-Ekiti Federal High Court yesterday nullified the election of Mr Musa Arogundade of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), representing Ado Constituency 1 in the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

Court, therefore, declared Mr Toyin Obayemi of the same party as the validly elected candidate in the April 11, 2015 general elections.

Obayemi had approached the court to challenge the substitution of Odunayo Talabi with Arogundade who served as his (Obayemi’s) agent during the November 29 2014 PDP primary elections.

Defendants in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) (1st), Talabi(2nd) , PDP (3rd) and Arogundade (4th).

Talabi, who won the shadow election in which Obayemi came second was allegedly disqualified for certificate falsification.

In his judgement, Justice Taiwo Taiwo blasted the PDP for fraudulently acquiring the judgement before Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja through which Arogundade was fielded as replacement to Talabi in Ado constituency 1 .

While acknowledging the opinions of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents’ reliance on the Supreme Court’s judgement in the case of Alhassan Vs Ishyaku which gave power to choose a candidate in election on the political party, the judge said such is not applicable when valid primaries was conducted .

Also berating the INEC for “playing the ostrich and bury its head in the sand while all these were going on”Justice Taiwo added : “I will be shirking in my responsibility if I fail to express disappointment with the attitude of the 2nd respondent(PDP). Its action was very worrisome and issue like this goes beyond the internal affairs of a political party , because it can bring about arbitrariness and imposition of candidate.

“The party has no reason to have substituted the 2nd respondent(Talabi) with the 4th respondent(Arogundade) because he did not participate in the primaries. And it is trite law that any allegation not denied is deemed admitted going by the verdict of the Supreme Court.

“The 2nd respondent did not deny the allegation that he presented a fake WAEC and Ordinary National Diploma Results got from Yaba Polytechnic, Lagos. Having not denied these, it means the averment were true and the plaintiff ought to have been presented as replacement , having come second in the primaries”.