Court dismisses suit against PDP’s Osun West Senatorial candidate

A Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, has dismissed the suit against the candidacy of Lere Oyewumi as Osun West Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming election.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how February 11 was fixed for judgement after hearing the originating summon and written addresses from counsels of the parties in the suit.

The judgement was rescheduled for Wednesday.

The choice of the PDP senatorial candidate in Osun-west for the 2019 general elections resulted in a conflict of interests among contenders.

The contest was between a former PDP governorship aspirant, Akin Ogunbiyi, and Lere Oyewumi, the director of the PDP governorship candidate, Ademola Adeleke’s campaign organisation.

Mr Ogunbiyi, a former governorship aspirant of the party, in July 2018 lost the gubernatorial ticket of the party to senator Adeleke in a controversial primaries and Mr Adeleke eventually came second in the governorship election held in September 2018 in which Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was declared the winner.

Okowa Campaign AD

The suit filed challenged the legality of PDP’s Osun West senatorial primary of October 6, 2018, held outside the senatorial headquarter of the district, Iwo, and requested the court to declare the plaintiff as the candidate of the party in accordance with earlier decisions of the party.

PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that the party’s leadership had conceded the senatorial ticket to Mr Ogunbiyi, a position that was further reinforced by a panel saddled with the senatorial primaries in September and relevant documents were issued to him.

Meanwhile, on October 6, while the national convention of the party was going on in Portharcourt, Rivers State and Mr Ogunbiyi was there as the deputy chairman of the Welfare and Hospitality Committee, Mr Lere was said to have won the senatorial ticket at a primary election held in Osogbo, outside the senatorial district.

Dissatisfied with the development, Mr Ogunbiyi challenged the matter at the court. Defendants in the case were Lere Oyewumi, Ademola Adeleke, the PDP and the INEC as first, second, third and fourth respondents.

The counsel to the first defendant (Mr Lere), Dosu Babatunde, in one of his pleas at the hearing stage of the suit asked the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the matter was filed out of time, its an internal affair of the party and that Mr Ogunbiyi had not exhausted all internal mechanism of the PDP before heading for court.

The plaintiff’s legal team, led by Abeni Muhammed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, presented evidence and exhibits showing steps already taken by his client before taking the matter to the court, contravening the prayer of Mr Lere’s counsel.

However, the court on Wednesday said the suit, which was filed by Mr Ogunbiyi, was ruled out of time and could not be heard by the court.

In his judgment, Peter Lifu held that the plaintiff’s appeal to the party was contained in a letter dated 7th of October and acknowledged by the party on October 9. He struck out the suit on the ground of jurisdiction, saying that the suit was statute barred.

The senatorial election comes up on February 16.