2023: Court dismisses ex-AGF's suit challenging Benue APC gov candidate

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed a suit challenging the nomination of Hyacinth Alia as the governorship flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State.

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, challenged the validity of the APC’s primary election that produced Mr Alia, a Roman Catholic priest.

The party had held its primary election on 26 May and a rerun on 9 June, with Mr Alia clinching APC’s ticket for next year’s governorship poll in Benue.

But Mr Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), contended that Mr Alia’s emergence fell short of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution of the APC.

The former AGF queried Mr Alia’s qualification to vie for election, claiming that he was at the time of the primary not a valid member of the APC and was an employee of the Catholic Church.

Delivering judgement on the suit on Thursday, the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, held that Mr Aondoakaa’s suit was incompetent and statute-barred, having been filed outside the 14 days allowed for the institution of pre-election cases under Section 285(9) of the Constitution.

Mr Mohammed, while agreeing with the APC and Mr Alia’s objection, said “the plaintiff (Mr Aondoakaa) was aware of the APC’s primary, which validity he was challenging, as far back as May 26, 2022, but chose to file his suit on June 10, about 16 days after the cause of action arose, thereby acting outside the 14 days allowed under Section 285(9) of the Constitution.

The judge held that Mr Aondoakaa’s decision to file the suit outside the statutorily allowed time has robbed the court of the jurisdiction to hear the case.

Consequently, Mr Mohammed dismissed the suit.

Another suit dismissedSimilarly, Kolowale Omotosho, a judge of the Federal High Court in Makurdi, Benue State, on Thursday, dismissed another suit challenging Mr Alia’s candidacy.

The Labour Party in Benue sued the APC and its governorship candidate on the grounds that Mai Mala Buni, Yobe State governor, who constituted the National Executive Council that set up the committee to conduct the APC primaries that threw up Mr Alia as the candidate was illegal.

A statement by Mr Alia’s spokesperson, Kulas Tersoo, said Mr Omotosho dismissed the suit for being “statute-barred.”

Responding to the rulings, Mr Alia was quoted to have expressed “confidence in the judiciary to do justice to all the court cases against his candidature…”

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