The Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified the selection of Sen. Sunday Karimi as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the 2027 Kogi West Senatorial District election.
Justice Salim Ibrahim ordered Karimi to cease presenting himself as the APC candidate for the senatorial district in the upcoming general elections.
Justice Ibrahim found that the plaintiff, Bamidele Aro, proved his case and was entitled to all requested reliefs.
The judge held that from the totality of evidence placed before the court, the election that Aro won was conducted by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) Election Committee and monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but “the purported primary allegedly won by Karimi was not monitored by the commission and was, therefore, invalid.”
He noted that INEC did not possess records of the election results that Karimi claimed to have won.
“No wonder, the 3rd defendant (INEC) did not give them the certified true copy of same even after being applied for by the 2nd defendant (Karimi) to the 3rd defendant by a letter dated June 15,” he said, citing Karimi’s Exhibit 7b to back his decision.
Justice Ibrahim, therefore, said: “There is no gainsaying that the purported primary that produced the 2nd defendant was not monitored by the 3rd defendant as required by the Electoral Act and therefore, invalid.”
According to him, Section 84(1) & (12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 makes it mandatory for INEC to monitor primaries of registered political parties, and any primary of a political party not so monitored would ordinarily be regarded as invalid.
“The law is settled that for a party primary to be valid, the INEC/2nd Cross/Respondent has to mandatorily observe and monitor the nomination of the party’s candidate in line with the requirement of Sections 82 (2) (b) and 84 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2022,” he said.
The judge, who granted all the reliefs sought by Aro in his suit, said: “The law is trite that it is the aspirant who emerged at the end of the primaries with the highest number of votes that shall be declared the winner of the primaries of the party and the aspirant shall be issued with INEC Form EC9 which shall be forwarded to INEC as the candidate of the party.” Justice Ibrahim ordered the APC to immediately submit Aro’s name as the party’s candidate for the 2027 senatorial election.l.
He also directed INEC to publish Aro’s name as the legitimate APC candidate for the Kogi West Senatorial District election.
Nan reports that the suit, naming the APC, Karimi, and INEC as first to third defendants, was initially filed in the Lokoja division of the Federal High Court and later transferred to the Abuja division due to security concerns.
Aro, the plaintiff, requested the court to declare him the winner of the primary election held on May 18.
He also asked the court to nullify the APC’s submission of Karimi’s name to INEC as its candidate for the upcoming Kogi West senatorial election. Arguments from John Olusola Baiyeshea, SAN, for Karimi; Dayo Akinlaja, SAN, for INEC; and A. G. Ivom for the APC faulted the suit’s competence and urged the court to dismiss it as statute-barred.
Baiyeshea argued that although the primary was held on May 18 and Karimi’s name was submitted to INEC on June 29, the plaintiff filed his suit in late July, beyond the 14-day limit set by Section 285(9) of the Constitution for pre-election cases.
Plaintiff’s counsel, Johnson Usman, SAN, contested the defendants’ arguments.
He argued that substantial evidence, including INEC results, showed that Bamidele won the election.
He requested the court to declare his client the winner and to order INEC to publish Bamidele’s name as the APC candidate for the senatorial district.
