Olusegun ARIYO
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 26 for judgment in a suit by a former lawmaker, Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, challenging the emergence of Sunday Aguebor and later Mrs Osayuki Asemota as the Senatorial candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, for Edo South Senatorial District in the 2027 general election.
Agbonayinma sued the NDC, claiming that he scored the highest number of lawful votes in the Senatorial Primary election conducted by the party but was unlawfully substituted.
In the suit, he is praying the court to declare as null and void the declaration of Mrs Osayuki Asemota or Sunday Aguebor as winner and candidate of the party in the forthcoming Senatorial election.
The plaintiff claimed that shortly after the primary election, he was declared winner and the Senatorial candidate but was illegally replaced by Sunday Aguebor in gross violation of the Electoral Act.
He claimed that while he was struggling to have the unlawful substitution reversed, NDC in another dramatic turn, allegedly substituted Aguebor with Mrs Osayuki Asemota.
The plaintiff therefore urged the court to nullify the purported nominations of Sunday Aguebor and Mrs Osayuki Asemota and declare him the lawful Senatorial candidate for Edo South Senatorial District.
At Monday’s proceedings, Justice Abdulmalik set November 26 for judgment after the lawyers in the matter adopted their final arguments.
