The Supreme Court has affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Lagos which upheld the nomination of Abdulkareem Shittu as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Ikorodu Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives.
In a judgment on Friday, a five-member panel of the court held that the appeal filed by Awesu Abdulazeez (an aspirant) was without merit and proceeded to dismiss it.
In the led judgment written by Justice John Okoro, but delivered on Friday by Justice Tijani Abubakar, the court awarded a cost of N1million against the appellant and in favour of Shittu.
The judgment which was on the appeal, marked: SC/CV/1507/2022 filed by Awesu, was applied to a sister appeal filed by the PDP, marked: SC/CV/1508/2022.
The Court of Appeal had in its earlier judgments late last year, dismissed the appeals by Awesu and the PDP.
A three-man panel of the court dismissed the two appeals which had challenged the September 10, 2022 judgment by Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos that declared Shittu as the party’s flag bearer having won the party’s primary of May 24, 2022.
Justice Abdullahi Bayero, who read the lead judgments of the Court of Appeal, agreed with Shittu’s counsel Ms. Patience Patrick Udoh, that both appeals were without merit.
While the court awarded N500,000 cost against Awesu, it awarded N5m cost against the PDP, all in favour of Shittu.
In the September 10, Justice Osiagor directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Shittu as the validly nominated candidate for the Ikorodu Federal Constituency.
The judge held that Shittu won the party’s Lagos State House of Representatives primary conducted on May 24, 2022, by a simple majority.
He also held that the INEC form signed by officials of the party and countersigned by the INEC official had the name of the plaintiff, AbdulKareem Shittu, written on it as the winner of the primary election.
He further held that there was no cogent reason given by the PDP for a repeat election or the cancellation of its primary election of May 24 for the Ikorodu Federal Constituency.
The court, therefore, ordered the PDP to submit to INEC, the name of AbdulKareem Shittu, as the candidate of the party in place of Awesu AbdulAzeez whose name was submitted.
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