APC crisis: 100 aggrieved aspirants drag Oshiomhole to court

Members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that aspired for House
of Representatives and House of Assembly on the party's platform, in
Ondo State, have dragged the National Chairman, Comrade Adams
Oshiomole and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to
court.

The aspirants are agitating over the outcome of the party's primaries
in the state.

The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Kenneth Olawale, led the
aspirants numbering 100.

The aggrieved aspirants said "There was no primary election in the
state through which the candidates of the party could have emerged for
next year's general elections."

The aspirants include Eni Omosule, Mukaila Ayorinde Ajakaye, Coker
Malachi, Ayodeji Arowele, Dele Ologun, Olaposi Joe Babatunde and
Agunloye Taiwo among others.

Through their lawyer, Wale Omotoso, they are asking the court to
declare that the ruling APC do not have candidate for the National and
State Assembly elections in the state.

They said that the ruling party violated the 2010 Electoral Act and
the constitution of the country by presenting candidates for the
forthcoming election without the conduct of party primaries which is
one of the prerequisites for the emergence of candidates.

According to them, they were harassed, intimidated and chased out of
the venues of the primaries with matchetes and guns by thugs of
preferred candidates.

Aside Oshiomhole, the suit has as defendants the APC, the National
Legal Adviser, Babatunde Ogala, the state chairman of the party in
Ondo State, Mr Ade Adetimehin and the INEC.

The aggrieved aspirants asked for a "declaration that the subversion
of the Electoral Guidelines of the APC as stipulated in its
constitution by the party machinery in Ondo State in respect of the
House of Representatives and House of Assembly primaries purportedly
conducted on the October 5, 2018 in their failure to give the
claimants opportunity of being voted for by the members of the party
as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999 as amended is illegal, invalid, unconstitutional, null and void."