The appeal filed by Ahmed Ogembe challenging the candidature of Senator Nurudeen Abatemi has been dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of merit.
The apex court re-affirmed the ruling of the Court of Appeal.
Ogembe approached the courts to declare him winner of the January 7, 2011 primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party for Kogi Central Senatorial District.
Delivering the judgement, the panel of seven judges led by Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, held that the rulings of the lower courts in favour of the Kogi Central Senator were in order.
In the appeal, Ogembe asked the apex court to void the two court judgments in favour of Abatemi and return him as PDP candidate for the senatorial district. Senator Abatemi had won the PDP primary election but the outcome was contested by Ogembe with a petition to the PDP headquarters alleging massive irregularities and the use of fake delegates.
An appeal committee set up by the PDP which looked into the petition however dismissed it for lacking merit and upheld the primary election of Abatemi as being free and fair.
Despite the decision of the PDP appeal committee, Ogembe’s name was submitted to INEC by PDP as its candidate but the submission was voided and set aside by Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who ruled that the decision of the appeal committee was binding on PDP.
