A Federal High Court in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday gave a clean bill of health to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Fatimah Razaki, to contest the National Assembly election on Saturday.
The court struck out a case filed by a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the PDP in the state, Lateef Ajijola, against Razaki for lack of jurisdictional power to entertain the suit.
Delivering his judgement, Justice Mohammed Sanni submitted that it flies in the face of law for the plaintiff to have assumed that joining the Independent National Electoral Commission in the suit as second respondent in the matter had automatically vested the power of jurisdiction in the federal court.
Sani said the reliefs being sought by the plaintiff could only be granted in a state High Court, predicating the assertion on the fact that INEC, being a federal agency, was not the primary defendant in the case.
He described INEC as a tangential or nominal party in the case, saying the Federal High court has no power to grant reliefs being sought by the plaintiff in pursuant to Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended .
He, however, agreed with the submission of the plaintiff that the guidelines regulating the conduct of primaries by political parties must be strictly adhered to, to promote internal democracy.
Justice Sani said: “The Federal High Court is a creation of the constitution and we cannot go against the constitution.
“We quite appreciate the fact that the power to nominate a candidate is vested in the political party according to Section 8(7) subsection 9 of the Electoral Act and Section 70 of the Constitution.
“But this can be overruled when one raises complaint and relief can be sought in the state High Court.
“I cannot overrule the Supreme Court judgement on this matter that Federal High Court cannot grant relief in a case where a federal agency is not the primary respondent.
“I hereby decline jurisdiction in this case and the case is struck out.
“The case of the plaintiff has nothing to do with any federal agency in this case and if any, it is tangential or ancillary. This Court has no jurisdiction over this matter and it is hereby struck out.”
Ajijola challenged the nomination of Rasaki as the candidate of the PDP, saying he won the primary election conducted on December 7, 2014.
Ajijola, through his counsel, urged the court to invalidate the nomination and declare the plaintiff the duly elected candidate at the primaries.
But Rasaki, INEC and the PDP, through their counsels submitted that the power to nominate a candidate for the purpose of contesting an election was the sole responsibility of a political party.
Citing the case of Sylva Vs PDP, the counsel to the respondent, said Section 75 expressly granted the parties the powers to screen and nominate all candidates for INEC.