A Federal High Court in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has ordered an additional eight constituencies to the 32 seats of the Oyo State House of Assembly.
Giving the order on Friday, Hon. Justice Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo, ordered the restoration of the constituencies and pronounced that elections into them must be held within the next 90 days.
The court, in its judgment on the suit filed by the Attorney General of Oyo State against the Independent National Electoral Commission in suit no FHC/IB/CS/39/2012, held that by virtue of the mandatory provisions of Sections 91 and 112 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Oyo House of Assembly’s constituencies were inadequate.
Counsel to the state government, Babatunde Aiku, SAN, had asked for the restoration of the constituencies.
The court held that by those provisions of the constitution, the House was to consist of three or four times the number of seats the state has in the House of Representatives.
According to the judge, by a community reading of the constitution, the Oyo House of Assembly, as constituted, was not up to three or four times the number of seats the state has in the House of Representatives, which she said was a breach of the provision of the constitution.
At present, the Oyo House of Assembly has 32 state constituencies while it has 14 federal constituencies.
The learned judge, therefore, restored additional eight constituencies namely Ibadan North 3, Ibarapa South West 3, Ibarapa Central 4, Irepo, Itesiwaju, Oyo East, Saki East and Surulere.
The court further ordered INEC to conduct elections into these eight constituencies within 90 days.
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