Court dismissed Achimugu’s appeal challenging APC governorship primary

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the appeal of Abubakar Achimugu, a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State, challenging the outcome of the party’s primary election that produced Usman Ododo as the APC governorship candidate for the November 11 election in the state.

The appeal was dismissed by a panel of five Supreme Court justices led by Justice John Inyang Okoro. The other justices on the panel are Hellen M. Ogunwunmiju, Adamu Jarrow, Emmanuel Agim and Tijani Abubakar.

Achimugu had approached the Supreme Court to challenge the concurrent judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which upheld the outcome of the APC governorship primary election.

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Achimugu had alleged that Ododo and another APC governorship aspirant, Salami Deedat, did not resign their employment with the Kogi State public service 30 days before contesting the governorship primary election, as required by law.

But the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal held that Ododo and Deedat resigned their appointments more than 30 days before participating in the APC primary election.

At the Supreme Court hearing of the appeal on Thursday, Achimugu’s lawyer, K.C. Udeh Oyibo, withdrew the appeal after the Supreme Court justices questioned him on why his issues for determination in the Appellant’s brief did not have any challenge as to why the decision of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal were perverse.

The Supreme Court also dismissed an appeal filed by Senator Smart Adeyemi against the judgments of the lower courts, upholding the outcome of the Kogi APC governorship primary election. Adeyemi’s appeal was adjourned to October 23, 2023, for judgment.