The Federal High Court in Lokoja the Kogi State capital, on Wednesday, adjourned judgement in a suit to determine who is the valid candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) between Mohammadu Kabir Abdulwasiu and Umoru.
Reacting to the adjournment, Chief Umoru expressed his dissatisfaction over the prolonged date of judgement by Justice Okorowo because it implies that the November 16 Kogi gubernatorial election would have been conducted and perhaps nothing will be at stake regarding the election by the time judgement will be delivered on December 6.
This development, he said, was contrary to the rationale for transferring the suit to Lokoja in the first place for timely judgement since the date of the election was near.
Umoru had instituted a suit at the Federal High Court in FCT Abuja on the 23rd of September 2019 which was later transferred to the High Court in Lokoja. He claimed he was robbed of his mandate after he genuinely emerged as the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress after a primary election which was held on the 24th of August 2019 in Lokoja as required by the Electoral Act 2010 Section 87.
Chief Umoru’s campaign organisation and supporters have also expressed their dissatisfaction over these developments and saying that the unpleasant incident of stolen mandate and the delay of judgement has hampered the progress and the momentum created by the campaign organisation ahead of the Kogi State November 16 gubernatorial election.
In addition, Chief Umoru and his supporters believed the desperation of Yahaya Bello of the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) to remain in power is responsible for their set back having offered candidates of some political parties about four to five million naira to either withdraw from the race or be dormant in political activities so that the All Progressive APC will in turn benefit from it.
The campaign organisation also lamented that the national party chairmanship tussle between Mr. Omoyele Sowore, who is currently in DSS custody, and Mr. Leonard Ezenwa, the former national secretary of the party who has been parading himself as the acting national chairman of African Action Congress (AAC) did not helped matters, because the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) quickly took advantage of the party’s leadership faction to truncate Chief Umoru’s momentum.
