Ogun guber poll: Court dismisses another suit against Gov. Abiodun

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 7:05 pm

Governor Dapo Abiodun:

Adejoke Adeleye/Abeokuta

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out another case seeking the disqualification of Prince Dapo Abiodun as the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2019 general election.

Mrs. Iyabo Anisulowo in the pre election suit had approached the court to challenge the eligibility of Prince Abiodun as a candidate at the election over his alleged failure to participate in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Scheme.

But the counsel to the Ogun State Governor, Mr Wale Abeeb Ajayi, had prayed the court to dismiss the case against his client arguing that participation in the NYSC scheme was never a disqualification factor in elections.

Delivering his judgment, Justice M A Mohammed of Federal High court, Abuja noted that the plaintiff failed to establish that Dapo Abiodun presented false academic claims to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He held that a candidate cannot be disqualified over failure to participate in the NYSC scheme, saying that a candidate can only be disqualified under Section 177 of the Constitution.

Consequently, the suit was dismissed.

This case is the final of the series of pre-election matters filed against the governor as other cases have been similarly dismissed.

Only on Monday, the Supreme Court had dismissed a similar case brought by one Abdulrafiu Baruwa challenging the qualification of Abiodun to contest in the last governorship election of Ogun State on the ground of failure to disclose all his academic qualifications.

t said the suit lacked merit.