14th February, 2011
Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday fixed 17th February for the delivery of judgment in the case instituted by Mr. Abdulrazak Isa Kutepa, an aspirant for the governorship of Kogi state, North Central Nigeria, under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the emergence of Mr. Jibrin Isa and Mr. Clearance Olufemi as both the guber candidate and deputy respectively.
Kutepa, through his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, a senior advocate of Nigeria, had informed the court that the party cancelled the governorship primary conducted by the party and supervised by the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, on the 9th of January but failed to conduct another primary as envisaged by the amended Electoral Act. He contended that the resort to the result of the cancelled primary by the party and the forwarding of Mr. Jibrin Isa’s name to the electoral body contravenes the spirit of the Electoral Act as amended. He urged the court to compel his party to conduct fresh primary election in the state for the selection of the candidate that will fly the party’s flag during the forth coming general election.
He also pleaded with the court to hold that the timetable published by the electoral body which stipulates that the time for primary elections had elapsed is not sacrosanct and immutable and as such cannot restrain the party from conducting fresh primary election in Kogi state.
In opposing Mr. Kutepa’s request, PDP, argued that the state was not included in the list of states where the party wanted to conduct fresh elections as published by the party’s National Working Committee, the foremost organ of the party responsible for such decisions.
Chief Olusola Oke, the National Legal Adviser to the party told the court that the party’s NWC has the final say on all disputes relating to the conduct of primaries and that the organ’s decision remains binding on every member of the party including Mr. Kutepa who instituted the suit. Exhibiting an extract of the NWC’s meeting over disputes in primary elections, Chieh Oke submitted that Kogi state was not listed among states whose primary results were cancelled. He also posited that Mr. Kutepa is not a member of the party’s NWC and is therefore not in a position to contradict, dispute or deny the content of the NWC meeting extract. In concluding his argument, Chief Oke stated that the power to cancel result of primaries or not to cancel lies on the NWC and there is no evidence before the court to show that the organ had cancelled the Kogi state gubernatorial primary which Mr. Jibrin Isawon with a total vote of 361 over Kutepa’s 303 votes. He urged the court to dismiss the suit.
Mr. Pius Akubo, a senior advocate representing Mr. Jibrin Isa, also opposed the suit on the ground that the period stipulated in the party’s guideline for complainants to protest result of primary election had elapsed before the institution of the suit by Mr. Kutepa. He alleged that a document authored by Mr. Kutepa’s lawyers to show their compliance with the 24 hours window stipulated by the party for complaints over results of primary election was improvised and concocted in retrospect to give a semblance of compliance and urged the court to drive Mr. Kutepa away from the seat of justice on that score.
The electoral body on its part argued that it supervised the primaries conducted in the state by the PDP on the 9th of January and that the list of candidates it published in respect of the governorship candidate of the party is consistent with the primary election which the electoral body supervised.
By Nnamdi Felix/ Abuja