Ekiti State governor-elect, Mr. Ayo Fayose, on Monday asked an Ekiti High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti to strike out a case seeking to stop him from contesting the June 21 governorship election already won by him. The Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case filed by a socio-cultural organisation, Ekiti Eleven and the Citizens Party. His lead counsel, Mr. Raji Ahmed (SAN) argued that only the Federal High Court could hear the case since it involved the a federal agency—the Independent National Electoral Commission-and the National Secretariat of the PDP. Ahmed said that the case, in which the plaintiffs sought to stop his client from contesting the governorship election, had been overtaken by events as it had been won and lost. Opposing the argument, the lead counsel to the citizen’s party, Norrison Quakers (SAN), argued that the case still had merit regardless of whether the election at hand had been conducted or not. Supporting the argument, counsel to the’ E-Eleven’, Mr. Raufu Balogun, insisted that the court had jurisdiction to try the case, and should therefore not strike it out. He urged the court to dismiss the defendant’s counsel submission for lacking in merit, citing Section 31 of the Electoral Act. Before adjourning till July 18 for ruling, Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi asked all the parties to submit their written applications on or before the said date
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 04:58:48 +0000
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