Eko Hot Blog reports that Attorney Otegbeye is the chosen successor to outgoing Senator Ibikunle Amosun.
The Labour Party in the state had dragged ADC candidates to court over alleged non-compliance to the Electoral Act in the conduct of the party’s primaries.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Akintayo Aluko nullified Otegbeye’s candidacy as well as the party’s State Assembly candidates.
Aluko held that the primary election, which produced Otegbeye and the state assembly candidates, was not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The primary election was conducted in violation of the Electoral Act, the court said.
Otegbeye and the assembly candidates were declared by the court to be ineligible ADC candidates for the governorship and state assembly elections of 2023.
The court, therefore, ordered INEC to expunge the names of Otegbeye and the 26 legislative candidates from the list of candidates cleared for next year’s elections.
In response, Tunde Falola, the attorney for the second and third defendants (ADC and all the candidates), signaled that the party will review the judgment’s specifics and move through with an appeal.
Falola said, “The court has given judgment in its own wisdom and it is in favor of the plaintiff. As you know, this is a contest, one way or the other it has to go the way it goes, but that is no the end of the case, we have applied and we have indicated to the court that we are very interested in having access to the judgment as quickly as possible with the view to sit down and analyze the judgment with the view of taking further steps in respect of the judgment.
“Constitutionally, every Nigerian, every party before the court whose judgment has been given against has the right, constitutional right to approach the higher court and ventilate his or her grievances. There are some areas in which we feel we disagree with the judgment of his lordship, that we intend to explore before the court of appeal.
“There are some areas in which we feel that the positions of the lordship do not accord with the position of law; that is what we intend to explore.”
The LP Legal Counsel, Monday Mawah, described the judgment as a welcome development.
Mawah said, “Simply put, what transpired in court today is a victory for the rule of law and democracy. We brought an action to the court challenging the decision of INEC to countenance the list of candidates that purportedly emerged in primaries that never took place by the ADC.
“When the final list of candidates was published, we were surprised to see the names of candidates of ADC and then we went to court to say if the Electoral Act says INEC must monitor primaries and then a primary was purportedly done without inviting INEC, that primary in the eye of the law is invalid, and the court answered that question in the negative that the primary in which INEC was never invited can never be valid in the eye of the law and that any candidate that purportedly emerged from such primary must be removed and that was what the court did today.
“The court agreed with us and said in the eye of the law there was no primary since there was no primary any name purportedly put on that list for ADC should be removed.”
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