A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court sitting in Jabi, Abuja, yesterday, ruled in a suit challenging the election of Hon Lawal Muhammadu Idirisu, member representing Ajaokuta federal constituency of Kogi State.
Shortly after the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held in October, 2018, an aspirant in the election, Hon Yusuf Balogun, had approached the court, challenging the qualification of Hon Idirisu, who had won the primaries.
In an originating summon filed at the FCT high court on January 17th, 2019, Hon Balogun prayed the court to nullify the candidacy of Hon Idirisu over alleged forgery of National Diploma (ND) certificate.
But counsel to Idirisu, M S Ibrahim, in a preliminary objection, filed a no-case submission, urging the court to dismiss the case, stressing that the suit was ‘time barred’ and abuse of court processes.
He contended that same certificate forgery case had already been adjudicated upon in 2015 and 2019 by both Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.
Ruling on the matter, Justice CO Agbaza, berated the plaintiff for filing out of time as stipulated in the electoral act.
Delivering a 15-page judgement, yesterday, Justice Agbaza said, the suit was not only status and time barred, but it had also severally been litigated in different courts of cognate and higher jurisdictions and as such, an abuse of court process.
Dwelling on the judgements of federal high court, Abuja of April 2019 and court of appeal, Abuja in June 2019, Justice Agbaza said the matter was “caught up with Res-judicata” and thus, lacked merit.
The Judge, while dismissing the suit, described the action of the plaintiff as “judicial rascality” as his petition “lacks locus standi”.