Justice Kazeem Alogba of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, yesterday struck out the perjury suit, instituted against incumbent Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
The judge specifically threw out the Originating Summons, on the grounds that the documentary evidence tendered before the court are not admissible in law.
According to the judge, "Legally admissible documents were not tendered before this court. There is no evidence therefore that the defendant committed perjury.
"The Originating Summons is incompetent and ought to be strucked out. The incompetence of the suit robs the court the jurisdiction to entertain the suit on its merit.
"The court will therefore not bother to go into the merit of the matter as same would amount to a mere academic exercise."
Prior to this time, Senator Obanikoro who was the governorship aspirant under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Lagos State, in the forth coming governorship election had questioned the suit asking Justice Alogba to stop him from contesting the governorship primaries of the party or any other election in the future.
Obanikoro in his preliminary objection to the suit filed by the applicants which included: Micheal Babatunde Ogun, Suleiman Olayinka Saheed and Wasiu Adeniyi Odusan, had asked Justice Alogba to issue an order striking out or dismissing the originating summons, describing it as an abuse of court process.
Obanikoro had also prayed the judge to issue an order striking out or dismissing the originating summons, which according to him does not disclose reasonable cause of action and for any order the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.
It would be recalled that the applicants had prayed the court to issues a declaration that Obanikoro was not eligible to contest the primaries based on paragraph 4(a) of Part IV of the Electoral Guidelines for Primary Election 2014 of the PDP and his antecedents as particularised in the affidavit in support of the originating summon.
They also prayed for, "A declaration that the first respondent stands disqualified by virtue of constitutional provisions, including
Electoral Act from aspiring for nomination in the governorship primaries of the third respondent or any registered political party in Nigeria for the purpose of contesting 2015 general elections for governorship in Lagos State or any subsequent elections in Nigeria."
Besides, the applicants also prayed the court for an order of interlocutory injuction restraining the first defendant from participating in the governorship primaries of the PDP held last Monday "or in the alternative, of any of the registered political parties in Nigeria.
They equally asked the court to issue an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the PDP from nominating Obanikoro to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the purpose of contesting the 2015 governorship elections in Lagos state or any subsequent elections in Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of the Originating Summons.
The applicants in addition prayed for an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting the candidacy or nomination of the first respondent by the third respondent for the purpose of contesting the 2015 governorship election in the state.
Other defendants in the suit are the INEC and PDP.
Photo credit: OsunDefender
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