A Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan has dismissed a suit filed by a former commissioner, Mr Lawrence Olujide Adewale, challenging the validity of nomination of Honorable Samson Olusunbo Olugbemi as the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Oluyole federal constituency in the 2015 general election.
Adewale had pleaded the court to upturn the declaration of Hon. Olugbemi as the winner of the party primaries conducted on December 7, 2014, in which the latter defeated other three aspirants including the former commissioner of Environment in Oyo State. He (Adewale) claimed he won the primary election and prayed the court to sack Olugbemi from the House of Representatives, Abuja and declare him as the lawful federal lawmaker representing the constituency.
Delivering his judgement on Wednesday, Justice Ayo Emmanuel, dismissed the petition filed by Adewale for lacking in merit and affirmed that Hon. Olugbemi was validly nominated by the APC having won the party primaries held on December 7, 2014, and fulfilled all constitutional provisions to contest the March 28, 2015 general election which he also won convincingly.
While reacting to the judgement, Hon. Olugbemi described as a victory for democracy, the good people of Oluyole federal constituency and the APC in Oyo State. He regretted that the case has to drag for about three years before he could be vindicated over a case which, according to him, ought not to have come up at all.
His words: “We give God all the glory. This was a case which ought to have come up in the first instance in view of the fact that the process of party primaries conducted for all the aspirants was transparent, free and fair. Nonetheless, we have to move on and be more focused on the quest to deliver on the mandate given to me by the good people of my constituency.
