Court sacks APC lawmaker in Kogi — 7 weeks after election

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered Atule Egbunu, member of the Kogi state house of assembly, to vacate his seat as he was unlawfully elected.

The lawmaker representing Ibaji constituency of Kogi state was declared winner of the election after getting 8,515 votes in the December 5, 2020 election.

However, Joseph Enemona, an aspirant in the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and six others instituted a suit against the party and Egbunu, challenging the legality of the September 3, 2020 primary election.

Enemona submitted that the party wrongfully excluded six other aspirants from its primary election and conducted indirect primary, contrary to APC’s stipulated guidelines.

The plaintiff also asserted that while the law stipulates that the primary election be conducted at the party’s secretariat in Onyedega, Kogi state, the APC officials conducted a primary election in a mall.

He further submitted that the party failed to issue the mandatory 21-day notice to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the primary election as stated in Section 85 of the Electoral Act, 2010.

The plaintiff prayed the court to void the election and order a fresh process to be conducted.

Delivering judgment in the suit on Friday, Inyang Ekwo, presiding judge, agreed that the APC failed to conduct a lawful primary.

He held that the party wrongfully excluded the other aspirants.

Ekwo also faulted the purported substitution done between Matthew Oguche and Atule Egbunu, on the ground that Oguche was not one of the legitimate aspirants before the election.

Consequently, he declared the APC primary election of September 2020 “illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional”, and subsequently set it aside.

Ekwo added that since the time for primary and nomination has lapsed, Daniel Enefola, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second in the December 5, 2020 bye-election with 4,564 votes, should be inaugurated as the lawmaker for Ibaji constituency.