The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the appeal filed against the candidature of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The Court presided by Justice Bature Gafai upheld the argument of her Counsel Mister Johnson Usman, that the Deponents of the affidavits in support of the originating summons who were not delegated cannot challenge the delegate election.
The Court held further that the handwritten purported delegate list by the appellant, Mister Adamu Attah, lacks evidential value.
While relying on the certified true copies of the delegate election results and the primary election tendered by Akpoti-Uduaghan, the court upheld the election of Akpoti-Uduaghan, and dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.
The appellant, Adamu Atta, had in his originating summons alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan did not win the primary election of the PDP for Kogi Central Senatorial District for the 2023 General election and therefore her nomination should be nullified.
He claimed, among others, that the May 25 primary election which produced Akpoti-Uduaghan was flawed and not validly conducted as required by law.
The plaintiff asked the court to void and set aside the primary election as well as the eventual nomination of the defendant.
However, Akpoti-Uduaghan through her counsel, Johnson Usman, objected to the hearing of the suit on the ground that the originating summons was not endorsed as required by law.
The senior lawyer in his preliminary objection against the legal action relied on section 97 of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act to establish that the originating summons was incurably defective and incompetent having not been endorsed in line with provisions of the law.
Besides the incompetence of the originating summon, Akpoti-Uduaghan had in her counter-affidavit averred that the primary election conducted on 25th May 2022 was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission and that she validly won, attaching the result, delegates list, and INEC report.
