Benue: Court Sacks LP Running Mate

By Ayodele Oni

Four days to the Governorship Election, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has sacked the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Benue State,  Idu Christopher Onyiloyi.

Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo on Wednesday kicked Onyoloyi out of the race and replaced him with Dr Ochechi Godwin Adejor.

The suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1853/2022 has LP, INEC and Onyiloyi as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.

Delivering judgment in a suit instituted by Adejor, Justice Ekwo held that Onyiloyi, having voluntarily withdrawn as Deputy Governorship Candidate and deposed to an affidavit to that effect, ceased in law to hold the same status.

Justice Ekwo found as facts that Onyiloyi personally wrote the Labour Party to  withdraw his candidacy and gave the withdrawal legal backing with a Court affidavit as evidence.

The Judge invoked sections 221, 222 of the 1999 Constitution and sections 29, 31, 32, 33 and 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 and declared that Labour Party is under obligation to remove Onyiloyi and replace him with Adejor upon voluntarily withdrawal.

Justice Ekwo ordered the LP to immediately forward the name of Dr Ochechi Godwin Adejor, the plaintiff, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for publication as the lawful Deputy Governorship Candidate.

The Court issued an order compelling INEC to publish the name of the plaintiff and another order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting any name other than that of the plaintiff as the Deputy Governorship Candidate.

Justice Ekwo also issued another order stopping Onyiloyi from further parading himself as the Labour Party’s Deputy Governorship Candidate in Benue, while the Party was restrained from according any recognition to Onyiloyi as its Deputy Governorship Candidate.