In the judgement delivered by Justice A.M. Anka on the 14th of October, 2022 in SUIT NO: FHC/YL/CS/12/2022, the Judge held that the All Progressives Congress failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of it’s primaries.
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According to the Judge, by virtue of Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act, as amended 2022, where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of the Act in the conduct of its primaries, its Candidate for election shall not be included in the particular position in issue.
The Court further ruled that the plaintiff had locus standi institute the suit as there was not evidence of his expulsion from the party and that his alleged non exhaustion of internal mechanism wasn’t enough ground to deny him locus standi, as he had the legal right to seek redress and there was not provisions of laws that could strip that right. As regards the commencement of the suit by originating summons, the Court held that there was no issue of fraud raised by the plaintiff as alleged by the 2nd defendant counsel. It also held that by case laws, originating summons cannot be used when the facts are not irreconcilable in the sight of the judge and not counsels, and that in the instant case it was.
On the issues, the defendants submitted that the over Voting was just by 2 votes and thus, could be waived. And that the issue of vote buying required strict proof beyond reasonable doubt which was not the case and could not be done using the originating summons. They also argued that the plaintiff was abusing court process to have filed further affidavit in response to the counter affidavit an thus amounted to introduction of new facts after expiration of the 14 days limit.
Resolving the issues, the Court stated that first that the plaintiff was within the law to have filed a counter affidavit relying on Order 4Rule 5 of the practice direction. It also held that no new fact was introduced after analysing the further affidavit viz a viz the initial affidavit filed. The Court went forward went on to hold that the issue of two delegates was proven by documents tendered by the plaintiff and as such sought no necessity of witness to prove same.
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