Tension has enveloped the Federal High Court headquarters in Abuja where a Judge of the Court, Inyang Eden Ekwo will this morning deliver a make or mar judgment on the Osun State Governorship election coming up on Saturday.
A suit instituted by another governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Moshood Olalekan Adeoti is seeking disqualification of the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola from the gubernatorial poll.
Adeoti was the candidate of the faction loyal to former Osun State governor and current Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola in the February 19 primary election in Osun State, while Oyetola belonged to the camp of APC National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now APC Presidential candidate.
At the time of this report, the court premises has been jam-packed by APC members, especially friends and sympathisers of the governor seeking to know where the pendulum will swing to.
Adeoti, a former Secretary to Osun State Government filed the suit through his legal team led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chiesonu Okpoko.
In the originating summons, he is praying the court to nullify Oyetola’s candidacy on the grounds that the governor contested in the February 19 primary election as a member of the APC’s National Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC).
The plaintiff said 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).
According to him, governor Oyetola ought to have resigned his membership of the APC’s CECPC and leave office as an officer of APC at least 30 days prior to the date of the Osun State primary election, to qualify for participation in the said party primary election.
Governor Oyetola in the coming Saturday election is seeking second term in office by another four years, having won the last election held in 2018.
Several Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, led by Chief James Ogwu Onoja have also stormed the court for the landmark judgment.
