A Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled judgment for January 13 next year in a suit seeking to sack the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
Justice Inyang Ekwo chose the date on Monday after entertaining final arguments from lawyers representing parties in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/881/2020 by Mrs. Olajumoke Anifowose, a former governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last election in Ondo State.
Mrs. Anifowose is, among others, querying the outcome of the July 20, 2020 governorship primary election conducted by the APC, which produced Akeredolu as the party’s candidate.
Defendants in the case are Akeredolu, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Plaintiff’s lawyer, Adesina Oke adopted all the processes he filed for his client and prayed the court to discountenance the objections raised by the defendants.
Oke urged the court to resolve all the issues raised in the suit and grant the reliefs sought by his client.
Lawyers to Akeredolu and the APC, Akin Olujinmi (SAN) and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) urged the court to uphold their objection to the competence of the case and dismiss it.
They argued that the case was wrongly commenced when the plaintiff sued the Governor of Ondo State as against suing Akeredolu in his personal capacity since the case was about his candidacy.
Olujinmi argued that effort by the plaintiff to correct the error in the suit by filing an amended originating summons came late as it was done 50 days after the cause of action, outside the 14 days allowed by the Constitution.
He cited the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of the Attorney General of Anambra State v the Attorney General of the Federation (2001) 15 NWLR pt 1047 in support of his argument that there is a clear difference between the office of a governor and his private person.
