The Federal High Court, Abeokuta, on Wednesday dismissed a suit filed by a member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu challenging the nomination of Senator Buruji Kashamu as the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.
Delivering judgment in the case which Adebutu filed against Kashamu’s nomination, the Presiding Judge, Justice Abubakar Shittu held that the case was statute-barred having been caught up with the 4th Alteration.
The Court held that the cause of action arose on the 12th of April, 2018, whereas the suit was filed in December 2018.
The court further held that the Plaintiffs (PDP and its officers) are estopped from relitigating the issue of who has power to conduct primary elections of the PDP in Ogun State and submit the list of candidates.
According to the court, the case was an abuse of court process.
On the originating summons, the court held that the reliefs sought cannot be granted because the national leadership of PDP conducted its primaries in flagrant violation of the judgment of the court in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016.
The primaries were illegal. The power of the PDP NEC to sell nominations forms cannot be exercised because the judgment in Suit No. FHC/L/CS/636/2016 empowered the state EXCO to conduct primaries.
Reacting to the judgment, Senator Kashamu said, “There was no victor, no vanquished. We are all members of the same PDP family. We are better and stronger together in PDP. What is most important is that we are working together, holding reconciliation meetings and strategising together. We are set to deliver the state to PDP on Saturday, the 9th of March, 2019,” he said.