The Abuja division of the Federal High Court on Thursday,
cleared the coast for the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),
Natasha Akpoti to participate in the November 16 governorship election in Kogi
State after holding that the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the
constitutional powers to disqualify her from contesting the election.
In her judgment on Thursday, Justice Ogunbiyi-Giwa held that
INEC has no power to disqualify any candidate for an election as it is the exclusive
preserve of a competent court of law.
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She placed reliance on the provisions of sections 31(1) and
83 of the Electoral Act to the
effect that INEC cannot disqualify or
reject candidate nominated by a political party for an election is aimed at ensuring
that it does not lie within the executive realm of INEC to determine who
participates in an election, adding that the intention of the law is to make
INEC a truly unbiased umpire.
She, accordingly, ordered the electoral body to include her
name and that of her running mate, Adams Khalid on the ballot paper for the
November 16 polls.
The judge further granted reliefs 1-7 of the plaintiffs and
ordered INEC to include the names of the governorship and deputy governorship
candidate of the SDP as well and the party’s logo on the ballot in the November
16 governorship polls in Kogi State.
Akpoti, his deputy, Adams Khalid, and the SDP had approached
the court to challenge their exclusion from the 2019 Kogi State governorship
election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The commission had refused to accept the candidature of
Khalid in replacement of the earlier nominated deputy governor, Mohammed
Yakubu, on the grounds that Yakubu was not qualified in the first place to be
fielded as a deputy governorship candidate in the election on account of his
age.
But in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1129/2019 and filed on
October 3 by their lawyer, Ola Olanipekun SAN, the plaintiffs sought a
declaration of the court that INEC’s declaration vide a letter with reference
number: LEG/PP/23/T/107 that the nomination of Mohammed Yakubu as the deputy
governor of the SDP in the November 16 gubernatorial election was “invalid” on
the grounds of qualification was ultra vires and therefore null and void.