The Federal High sitting in Abuja has declined to restrain the All Progressives Congress (APC) from using a delegates’ list in conducting the scheduled April 10 primary election of the party to nominate its candidate for this year’s off-season governorship election in Kogi State.
The court also declined to restrain the APC from submitting the list to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pending the hearing and determination of a Motion on Notice.
Justice James Omotosho made the ruling in a suit filed by two plaintiffs – Realwan Okpanachi and Yahaya Seidu Nuhu – through their counsel M. A. Ebute (SAN).
The APC and INEC are the first and second defendants in the matter.
The plaintiffs filed a motion ex parte, dated March 8 and filed on March 9, seeking four reliefs.
They are: an order of interim injunction restraining the APC “from utilising the purported delegates’ list (Exhibit A31-21) in conducting the primary election slated for April 10, 2023, or any other date for the purpose of nominating its candidate for the 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, or submitting the said list to the second defendant pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.
The plaintiffs are also seeking “an order of interim injunction restraining the second defendants, from accepting and acting on the purported delegate list produced by the first defendant”.
They are also seeking “an order of interim injunction restraining the second defendant from monitoring any primary, however so called, conducted by the first defendant, using the purported delegates’ list for the purposes of nominating its candidate for the 2023 governorship election in Kogi State”.
But dismissing the application, Justice Omotosho held that “an order of interim injunction is hereby refused”.
The judge added: “An order is hereby made that all parties in this suit shall maintain peace and shall not take any action or step or act that may make the outcome of the Motion on Notice, dated March 8, 20223 and filed on March 9, 2023, nugatory or worthless.
“Any act or step or action made by any of the parties in this suit to make the outcome of the Motion on Notice, dated March 8, 2023 and filed on March 9, 2023, nugatory shall be a nullity.
“The applicants shall put the respondents on notice by serving them with the Motion on Notice, dated March 8, 2023 and filed on March 9, 2023.”
