A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Monday affirmed Hon. Mohammed Omar Bio of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the House of Representatives election in Baruten/Kaiama federal constituency of the state having won the APC primary election in the constituency.
Justice Mahmud Gafar gave the ruling on a suit brought before the court by Abubakar Abdullahi, who had approached the court to declare him as the candidate of APC in Baruten/Kaiama Federal constituency in the February 23, 2019 National Assembly elections.
Abdullahi in the suit had joined the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as co-defendants and prayed the court to declare him as the winner of the primary election conducted by the APC in Baruten/Kaiama federal constituency of Kwara state on October 5, 2018.
In his ruling on Monday, Justice Gafar dismissed it and held that it was not filed within the statute time stipulated by the law.
The court declared the case as staled and unenforceable having failed to satisfy section 289(9) of the 1999 Constitution fourth alteration which required that the suit to be filed within 14 days of the acquiral cause of action which is the day of placement of names by the third defendant which is INEC.
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He said that the primary election was conducted by the APC on October 5, 2018 but the suit was not filed until November 15, 2018 which was outside the statutory period prescribed by law.
Reacting to the ruling, Chief Sunday Ashaolu, who represented APC in the suit, said that the Court judgement has put an end to who is the winner of the APC primary election and the candidate of the party in the just concluded National Assembly election in Kaiama/Baruten federal constituency of Kwara state.
INEC had earlier on February 24, declared Omar Bio as the winner of the House of Representatives election on the platform of APC in the constituency having polled the highest number of votes.
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