THE Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, April 12, nullified and set aside the Ward and Local Government congresses conducted on February 7 by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State to nominate a candidate ahead of the governorship election in November.
In a judgement delivered by Justice James Omotosho, the court held that the purported congresses were not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and the APC’s Constitution.
He, therefore, ordered the leadership of the party to conduct fresh Ward and LGA congresses that would be in compliance with Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 and Section 13 of the party’s Constitution.
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The court also barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from using the delegates list that emanated from nullified congresses.
The judgment followed a suit that was instituted by a group of aggrieved members of the party led by Realwan Okpanachi.
The judge agreed with the plaintiffs that the APC in Kogi State failed to conduct congresses as stipulated by relevant provisions of the law by concocting a purported list of delegates and submitting the same to INEC without the knowledge of registered members of the party in the state.
Similarly, Justice Omotosho held that the APC failed to produce any result sheet showing the scores recorded by the participants in the purported Ward and LG congresses.
He noted that the major document that was at the disposal of the court to justify the conduct of the February 7 congresses did not contain a single name of any human being but signatures of imaginary participants at the purported congresses.
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Consequently, the court ordered APC to conduct special Ward and Local Government congresses in line with the provisions of the relevant laws.
Other plaintiffs in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/329/2023 are Yahaya Nuhu, Omaonu Arome, Mustapha Idoko, Aku Umar, and Abu Okpanachi.
The APC and INEC were cited as the 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively.