Court dismisses NNPP candidate’s suit challenging Aiyedatiwa’s election

The court of appeal in Akure has dismissed a suit challenging the primary that produced Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the last Ondo election.

In November 2024, Olugbenga Edema, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Ondo, asked a federal high court to disqualify Aiyedatiwa from participating in the election.

In an application, Edema asked the court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Aiyedatiwa, citing an “invalid” APC primary that violated electoral laws.

Displeased with the lower court’s verdict, which struck out his case, Edema approached the appellate court to challenge the verdict.

However, a three-member panel of the appellate court affirmed the judgement of the federal high court in a decision read by Oyebisi Omoleye.

In the verdict, the three-man appeal panel unanimously resolved all the issues formulated against Edema and consequently dismissed the appeal for abuse of the court process and for lack of merit.

The court, however, awarded a fine of N1 million to each of the respondents and dismissed the appeal filed against the victory of Aiyedatiwa and Adelami at the November 16 governorship election in Ondo.

Edema left the APC to join the NNPP in June after he lost in the party’s primary election to Aiyedatiwa.

He was among the party’s aspirants who alleged that the election did not hold in most parts of the state.