Home News JUST IN: PDP Loses Suit Challenging Oyo LG Polls

JUST IN: PDP Loses Suit Challenging Oyo LG Polls

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Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, on Thursday dismissed the suit challenging the conduct of the May 12, 2018 local government election in Oyo State.

The suit, which was filed by the Oyo State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had challenged the conduct of the election by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYISEC).

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Also joined as defendants in the suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Oyo State governor and the State House of Assembly.

The PDP had on March 29 instituted a court action against the conduct of the elections into the local councils and the newly created Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of the state.

Mr Ayo-Emmanuel in Thursday’s ruling held that the matter bordered on creation of councils and conduct of elections into the local government councils on which the court has no jurisdiction to entertain.

“The constitution clearly states that the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to hear this case because it is outside Section 251 of the constitution.

“The fact that the first defendant is a Federal Government agency does not confer jurisdiction on this court.

“I will therefore decline jurisdiction to entertain the case and it is hereby struck out,’ the judge said.

The Oyo PDP had filed 10 grounds why the court should restrain INEC from conducting the local government election.

Some of the grounds include that INEC has no constitutional power to assist OYISEC to conduct local government election and that INEC has no constitutional power to release the voters’ cards to OYISEC.

INEC, however, had prayed the court to strike out the suit for lack of jurisdiction.

A similar suit challenging the power of OYISEC to delineate and conduct local government election filed by some aggrieved members of All Progressives Congress (APC) had been dismissed by Justice Joyce Abddulmaleek of the same court.

The state government on May 12 conducted the election with the All Progressives Congress winning all the seats in the 33 LGAs and the 36 LCDAs.

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