Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu V. Dr Olusegun Michael Abraham & Ors(2018)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

JOHN INYANG OKORO, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal Abuja Division, delivered on 17th July, 2017 wherein the lower Court dismissed the appeal of the Appellant against the ruling of the Federal High Court Abuja, delivered on 16th December, 2016. The Federal High Court had in its ruling dismissed the appellant’s objection challenging the service of the originating summons and other processes in this case.

The salient facts giving birth to this appeal as garnered from the record of appeal are that the Appellant herein had emerged the winner of the primary election of the 2nd Respondent, conducted on the 3rd day of September, 2016 in Ondo State to elect the candidate of the 2nd Respondent for the election to the office of Governor of Ondo State slated for the 26th of November, 2016.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the primary election, the 1st Respondent by way of an Originating Summons and its accompanying processes filed on the 7th of October 2016, challenged the validity of the said Ondo State Governorship Primary Election of the 2nd Respondent, and sought

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the following reliefs:

1. A DECLARATION that the purported Delegates’ List dated 1/9/2016 with which the 1st Defendant’s purported governorship primary election was conducted on 3/9/2016 is illegal, unlawful and violates the 1st Defendant’s Constitution 2014 as amended same being fundamentally at variance with the lawful congress and congress Appeal Committee’s Delegates’ List of 2014.
2. A DECLARATION that the purported Ondo State governorship primary election held on the 3/9/2016 which also purportedly produced the 2nd Defendant as the purported Governorship candidate of the 1st Defendant in the Ondo State Governorship Election slated for 26/11/2016 and the acceptance of same by the 4th Defendant constitute a gross violation of Section 87 (1), (4)(b) and (7) of the Electoral Act 2010 as Amended and is therefore unlawful, null and void and of no effect.
3. A DECLARATION that the action of the 3rd Defendant in unilaterally submitting the name of the 2nd Defendant without the approval of the National Working Committee, National Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of the 1st Defendant and despite the report of the Election Appeal Committee

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recommending the outright cancellation of the governorship primaries is ultra vires the 3rd Defendant.

4. A DECLARATION that the purported governorship primary election in Ondo State held on the 3/9/2016 is in clear violation of sundry provisions of the APC Electoral Guidelines for Governorship primary Election 2014 and provisions of the Constitution of All Progressives Congress, 2014 as Amended and therefore invalid, null, void of no effect and incapable of producing the 2nd defendant as the governorship candidate.
5. AN ORDER setting aside the Ondo State Governorship Primary Election of the 1st Defendant held on the 3rd of September, 2016 for non-compliance with provisions of the APC Elections Guidelines 2014 as Amended for Primary Elections, and Electoral Act 2010 as Amended, APC Constitution 2014 as Amended;
6. AN ORDER setting aside the purported submission by the 3rd defendant and acceptance of the 2nd defendant’s name by the 4th Defendant as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives congress of Ondo State;
7. AN ORDER compelling the 4th Defendant to extend time within which the 1st Defendant shall conduct fresh Governorship

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Primary Election of the 1st Defendant based on the congress and Congress Appeal Committee’s Delegates’ List, 2014 and in compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as Amended, the Constitution of All Progressive Congress 2014 as Amended, APC Electoral Guidelines, 2014 and the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended;

8. AND FOR SUCH ORDERS OR OTHER ORDERS as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.

The 1st Respondent on the 7th of October, 2016, also filed a Motion on Notice for interlocutory injunction, a Motion Exparte for interim injunction seeking to restrain the 4th Respondent from recognizing the Appellant as the Governorship Candidate of the 2nd Respondent in the Ondo State Governorship slated for 26th November, 2016, pending the determination of the suit, as well as a Motion on Notice seeking to abridge the time within which the Defendants in the suit may enter appearance and file their respective processes from the thirty (30) days allowed under the Rules of the Trial Court to a shorter period. See pages 3 – 22 and 49 – 90 of the Record).

In constraint of time, the 1st

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Respondent on the 11th of October, 2016, filed a Motion Exparte seeking the leave of the Trial Court to serve the Originating processes and other processes filed in the suit on the 2nd and 3rd Defendants (the Appellant and 3rd Respondent in this appeal) by substituted means through the National Secretariat of the 2nd Respondent, i.e. the All Progressives Congress, at 40 Blantyre Street, Wuse 11, Abuja, FCT. The accompanying 18 paragraphs affidavit was deposed to by one Joseph Omoba Esq., a legal practitioner in the Law Firm of Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George SAN, who at the time were the solicitors to the 1st Respondent. At paragraphs 10 – 17, the deponent stated thus: