BREAKING… Court declines jurisdiction on Kogi Election (Updated)

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Friday, declined jurisdiction in the case brought before it by Captain Idris Wada, Hon. James Faleke and three others, to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission from conducting a supplementary election in the state on Saturday.

The presiding jugde, Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja, said it is only the Election Petition Tribunal that can adjudicate on the matter.

Justice Kolawole, who had earlier consolidated the four suits challenging  the outcome of the governorship election, and the scheduled supplementary election, struck out the suits for lack of jurisdiction.

Affirming the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  to conduct the two elections, he stated that he struck out the cases so as to allow for a judicial and permissive environment for INEC to conclude the election, adding that all the “issues raised are those that a governorship election tribunal should look at holistically”.

According to the judge, after the adoption of written addresses on December 3, counsels agreed on five facts, which include: that the current constitution of Nigeria does not recognize an independent candidate for any election; that each governorship candidate must be sponsored by a political party and that a governorship candidate must emerge from a primary election.

He also said another fact that emerged was that every governorship candidate must have a deputy to run as a joint ticket and that both the Constitution and the Electoral Act provide for a timeline in which elections must be held.

Read also:  Kogi: Faleke rejects Bello, insists on mandate

He also said the present scenario emerged, not because of the death of Abubakar Audu, but because the November 21 election was declared inconclusive.

Mr. Kolawole said having listened to all the submissions by counsels, he considered “which of these reliefs being sought can be entertained by the Federal High court”, adding that going ahead to grant any of the reliefs would amount to judicial anarchy. He concluded that only a competent election tribunal could do that.

“Once electorates have gone to vote, anything else can only be heard by tribunals,” he said.

The judge, who berated politicians for being too quick to go to the Federal High Court or State High Court to seek for elections to either be annulled or re run said: “Majority of the political class are bad losers, except for one or two examples. For instance, former Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and former President Goodluck Jonathan. Both of them in my view are men of exemplary character,” he said.

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