PDP Candidate Asks Court to Dismiss APC Suit for Lack of Jurisdiction

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the House of Representatives in Ajeromi/Ifelodun federal constituency, Lagos State, Mr. Francis Bartholomew Chima, has asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to decline jurisdiction in a suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking his disqualification in the 2023 general election. APC and his candidate, Mr. Paul Adeboye Kalejaiye, who is also vying for the same seat, have dragged Chima before the court, challenging his emergency as the PDP candidate in the coming general election on the ground that the party's primary election, which produced him, was not in conformity with the Section 84(13) of the new Electoral Act. APC and Kalejaiye in their suit marked: FHC/L/CS/1316/2022, filed by their counsel, Lawal Pedro (SAN), listed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP as Chima’s co-respondents. Lawal, while moving his clients' motion last Wednesday, urged the court for the following reliefs: ‘A declaration that by virtue of the provision of Section 84 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the second respondent (PDP), when seeking to nominate a candidate to contest against the applicants in the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency of Lagos State seat in the National Assembly, has an obligation to hold primary election for aspirants from its party to elect a candidate. ‘A declaration that by the virtue of the provisions of Section 84 (13) of the Electoral Act 2022, the nomination of the third respondent (Chima) as a candidate of the second respondent (PDP) to contest against the applicants in the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency of Lagos State seat in the National Assembly is null and void, for failure of the second respondent to comply with the provisions of Sub Section 1 of Section 84 of the Act to conduct primary election for his nomination as a candidate. ‘A declaration that the second respondent has no valid candidate to contest against the applicants in the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency in Lagos State seat in the National Assembly. "A declaration that the third respondent (Chime) is not entitled and has no right to contest against the applicants in the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency Lagos State seat in the National Assembly. And a declaration that by virtue of the provisions of Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act 2022, the first respondent (INEC) has a public duty and obligation not to include the name of the third respondent as a candidate of the second respondent to contest against the applicants the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency of Lagos State seat in the National Assembly. ‘An order of perpetual injunction restraining the first respondent, its servants, agents and howsoever from recognising or including the name of the third respondent as a candidate to contest against the applicants in the 2023 general election for the Ajeromi Ifelodun federal constituency of Lagos State seat in the National Assembly." However, the PDP candidate, in his preliminary objections to the suit, filed and argued by his team of lawyers led by Mr. Emeka Ozoani and Professor Joseph Abugu, both SANs, asked the court to dismiss the suit for being frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of court process, as the same have been caught by the limitation of time within which to file pre-election matters under Section 285(9) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended. The two senior lawyers, aside asking the court to dismiss the suit having been caught by statute of limitation, also asked the court to decline jurisdiction in entertaining it and to award a substantial cost of N10 million against the APC and Kalejaiye. The PDP candidate in his affidavit in support of the preliminary objections stated that he was an aspirant in the INEC's primary election scheduled for May 23 and 24, 2022, in the federal constituencies in Lagos State to select and nominate the first defendant’s candidate for the Ajeromi/Ifelodun federal constituency of Lagos State into the House of Representatives election in 2023. He stated that upon his expression of interest to serve in the Federal House of Representations, he purchased, filled and submitted the requite Expression of Interest form as well as the nomination form issued by the INEC for the Ajeromi/ Ifelodun federal constituency. And he was duly screened by a panel constituted by the INEC and issued a Certificate of Provisional Clearance to contest in the primaries supervised by INEC, for the purpose of selecting the candidate for the constituency.