A High Court in Ilorin, Kwara State, presided over by Justice Suleiman Kawu on Friday declined to grant an injunction restraining the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission from conducting election into the remaining 15 local government councils in the state on Saturday (today).
All Progressives Congress represented by its counsel, Mr. Deji Gbadeyan, had among other reliefs, prayed the court for “an order of injunction, restraining KWSIEC (1st defendant) from conducting any election on the 26th day of October 2013 into the various Kwara State local government councils when a matter challenging the validity, legality and the constitutionality of the proposed election is subjudis and pending before the court for determination.”
He also sought “an order restraining the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Movement and Independent Democrats (2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants) from holding out themselves or preventing themselves or participating in the 26th October proposed local government council election when the validity of their participation is a subjudis.”
Defendants in the suit included, KWASIEC, PDP, LP, PDM, and Independent Democrats.
But Kawu declined to grant the injunction, noting among other observations that APC unduly delayed in filing their application for an injunction, saying that it had been aware of the conduct of the election for many months.
“Applicants have failed to satisfy me in stopping the conduct of the election. For this reason, the case is hereby dismissed,” Kawu said.
A chieftain of APC, Mr. Sola Iji, in his reaction after the ruling, said the party approached the court expecting that opportunity be given to all the political parties to participate in the election.
He added that as a result of the court ruling, the election would be a contest ‘between PDP and PDP,’ and not a contest to test the popularity of political parties in the state.
“We didn’t say we did not want to participate, we wanted to participate. From the ruling, notice was given about five months ago, but the notice was given to Congress for Progressive Change, All Nigeria’s Peoples Party and Action Congress of Nigeria. July 31 was when APC came alive.
“Meanwhile, after an amendment to the state Electoral Law by the Kwara State House of Assembly on July 15th, 2013, no notice was given. KWSIEC gave notice for the election under an old law. We expect a fresh notice ought to have been issued and that would have given us the opportunity to participate and meet all the requirements for the election.”
-Punchng
Recent Comments