Court nullifies Ajulo’s candidacy, affirms Adebayo as Kwara APC reps candidate

A federal high court in Ilorin, Kwara has nullified the primary election that produced Raheem Ajulo as All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Ekiti/Oke Ero/Irepodun/Isin constituency in the house of represenatatives.

In its judgment delivered on Wednesday, the court said Oluwasegun Adebayo(pictured), son of a former governor of the state, was declared the authentic candidate for the constituency.

Ajulo, who is the current member representing the constituency, had sought to move to the senate but lost in the primary election to the incumbent senator, Lola Ashiru, while Adebayo won the ticket to replace him as the constituency’s representative.

In the first primary conducted on May 27, 2022, Adebayo won with 72 delegate votes, defeating nine other aspirants.

According to his supporters, the party replaced Adebayo with Ajulo and a “kangaroo” primary was conducted on June 9 to “legitimise” the switch.

Consequently, Adebayo challenged Ajulo’s candidacy at the federal high court.

In the judgment, Mohammed Sani, the presiding judge, declared the election that produced Adebayo as the authentic primary.

Reacting to the judgment, Adebayo appealed to all party members to work as one family.

“All I can say is to thank God Almighty, who always keeps his words and stands in support of his people. It is a victory for all. I want to beg all party members to note that we are one big family,” he said.

“The next course of action is fence-mending and reconciliation because we are one big family. We must ensure all our party candidates earn victory in the 2023 general election. I urge all our party members to please make this a priority.”