Oyo: Court upholds Rep’s victory

A Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan has upheld the validity of nomination of Honourable Samson Olusunbo Olugbemi as the authentic candidate of the APC for the Oluyole Federal Constituency in the 2015 general elections.

The court dismissed a suit filed by a former commissioner, Mr Lawrence Olujide Adewale, challenging Olugbemi as the authentic candidate of the party.

Adewale had pleaded with the court to upturn the declaration of Olugbemi as the winner of the party primaries conducted on December 7, 2014, in which the latter defeated three other aspirants including the former Commissioner of Environment in Oyo State.

He (Adewale) claimed he won the primary election and prayed the court to sack Olugbemi from the House of Representatives and declare him as the lawful federal lawmaker representing the constituency.

Delivering his judgement, Justice Ayo Emmanuel dismissed the petition filed by Adewale for lacking in merit and affirmed that Olugbemi was validly nominated by the APC having won the party primaries held on December 7, 2014 and fulfilled all constitutional provisions to contest the March 28, 2015 general elections which he also won convincingly.

While reacting to the judgement, Olugbemi described it as a victory for democracy, the good people of Oluyole Federal Constituency and the APC in Oyo State. He regretted that the case had to drag for about three years before he could be vindicated over a case which, according to him, ought not to have come up at all.