Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The factional All Progressives Congress (APC), in Kwara State, led by Ishola Balogun-Fulani, on Tuesday, lost out again at the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin to the rival faction recognised by the national body of the party.
The Balogun-Fulani group widely believed to be a brainwork of the Senate President Bukola Saraki had, last week, lost in the same appellate court in its bid to make the court allow it to field as governorship candidate that was produced outside the constitution of APC.
On Tuesday, however, the Appeal Court affirmed the authenticity of the Bashir Bolarinwa-led APC executives in the state and threw away the prayers of Balogun-Fulani to the contrary.
A Kwara State High Court had on December 19th last year ruled that the dissolved Ishola Balogun-Fulani executive was the authentic Executive of the APC in the state.
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However, the Appeal Court ruled against the lower court stressing that aside upholding the illegitimate faction, the court also lacked jurisdiction over the matter.
Dissatisfied by the judgment of the lower court, the APC approached the appellate court for redress where the grounds of appeal were that “the claimants cannot join the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the state High court because INEC is a Federal Government agency; the amendment of their originating summons was brought in bad faith.
APC held that; “They brought issues that were not in existence as at the time of filing the suit originally. Even though the lower court has discretion, but its discretion must be exercised judicially and judiciously which was not done in this circumstance.”
The appellate court in an interlocutory judgement it delivered last week upheld the nomination of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq as the state APC governorship candidate.
Reading his judgement on the main appeal Justice Ibrahim Salauwa set aside the judgement of the lower court and upheld the Bashir Bolarinwa-led executives.
He added there would be no reason to deliver a judgement on the same matter with the same parties after the interlocutory judgement of last week.
Justice Salauwa added that it “would amount to share fruitless academic exercise which the courts are not meant for.”
Reacting to the judgement, Kamaldeen Gambari, counsel to Bolarinwa, said that “what transpired is the affirmation of the interlocutory judgement which this court delivered sometime last week.
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“It said the originating process of Ishola Balogun-Fulani is incurably defective. The state High Court has no jurisdiction to go ahead in the matter.”
APC counsel, Lawal Jimoh said that the judgement “has laid to rest all the controversies about the judgement of the Kwara state High Court delivered December 19th last year. It nullified the total judgement.
“The issue of Ishola Balogun-Fulani parading himself as the APC chairman has been laid to rest.
“This judgement further solidifies that primaries of APC held in October last year in the state. There is no controversy at all. As of today the APC in Kwara state can go and sleep when it comes to the issue of factionalisation of the party or not.
“The court by that judgement affirmed the authenticity of Bashir Bolarinwa-led executives of APC in the state and of course all the candidates that emerged from the primaries that were held by the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC in October 2018 remain valid.”
