A Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo on Friday sacked a member of the All Progressives Congress representing Ibaji constituency in Kogi State House of Assembly, Atule Egbunu. The legislator, who had been declared the winner of a bye-election on account of his 8, 515 votes, was sacked on the grounds that he was unlawfully nominated by the APC.
Justice Ekwo, while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by an APC chieftain, Joseph Enemona, against his party and four others, declared Daniel Enefola of the Peoples Democratic Party as the lawmaker for Ibaji constituency, having emerged second with 4,564 votes in the December 5, 2020 state election.
Enemona had dragged the party before the Federal High Court, challenging the legality of September 3, 2020, primary election claimed to have been conducted by his party.
His grouse, among others, was that the party unlawfully excluded six other aspirants from the primary election and also did not allow delegates to vote at the poll.
The plaintiff also asserted that while the law stipulated that the primary election be conducted at the party secretariat in Onyedega, the APC officials conducted a purported primary election in a shopping mall.
He, therefore, demanded that the nomination of Egbunu be voided and another primary election is conducted.
However, Justice Ekwo, after reviewing submissions by parties in the matter, agreed that the APC did not conduct a primary election known to the law.
The judge held that while seven aspirants were to participate in the primary election, the party unlawfully manipulated the system for a single candidate.
He also held that the APC ran afoul of the law by conducting the purported primary election outside the party secretariat as required by law.
