The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court would on Thursday, give a judgement in a suit seeking the disqualification of the incumbent governor, Adegboyeva Oyetola, as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

The state governorship election holds on Saturday, July 16, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). 

Justice Inyang Ekwo fixed the date for the judgement after the counsel for the parties had adopted their processes and presented their arguments in the case. 

Moshood Adeoti, one of the aspirants who contested the APC ticket, went to court after the party’s primary held on February 19, 2022, and challenged the emergence of Mr Oyetola as the candidate. 

The plaintiff, through his legal team, led by Chiesonu Okpoko, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is praying that the court should nullify Mr Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that the incumbent governor contested in the poll as a member of the party’s Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).

According to him, the act contravened the provisions of Section 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Article 31(iii) of the APC, October 2014 (as amended).

He added in the suit that Oyetola ought to have resigned his membership of the APC’s CECPC and leave office as an officer of the party at least 30 days prior to the date of the party’s primary election.

Peoples Gazette reports that Mr Oyetola, who first won as the governor of the state in 2018, is seeking to extend his tenure in office for another four years.  

Fifteen political parties would be participating in the Saturday governorship election.