Following the sack of the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker
representing Ilorin South constituency, Hon. Hassan Azeez Elewu by the
Appeal Court, the judgement has been a subject of controversy among
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kwara State
House of Assembly and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose
candidate, Hon Abdulraheem Agboola was ordered to be sworn-in. HEAD
POLITICS, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM writes on the development which has gone
back to the High Court for determination, today.
A typical of several elections that had been contested among political
parties in the country, the tussle for the House of Assembly seat for
Ilorin South constituency between Hon. Elewu of APC and Hon Agboola
of the APC and the PDP respectively, will have to be determined by the
court rather than the ballot box.
Since the issue first came to limelight over six months ago, the
controversy that had trailed it up to this time has been as worrying
and troubling to be mild with words especially as regards the actions
of individuals and institutions in the unfolding scenario.
The contentious litigation initially began like a straightforward
matter when the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin nullified the
election of Elewu and ordered that Agboola be returned with a fresh
Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC.
According to the judgement of the Appeal Court which based its
decision on the disputed APC primaries that earlier produced Alhaji
Suleiman Abdulsalam popularly known as Sule Cement as the party’s
candidate in the election but was later substituted with 28-year-old
Elewu, the APC has no valid candidate for the 2019 House of Assembly
poll. It therefore ordered that the candidate with the second-highest
number of votes, in this instance, Hon Agboola be declared winner.
To put the scenario in proper perspective, the PDP candidate had
challenged the eligibility of the APC candidate and his party’s
nomination process at the tribunal following which a fresh election
was ordered in the constituency. But while INEC was about to commence
preparation for the rerun, the APC approached the court claiming it
was Elewu and not Abdulsalam that won its primary.
Initially, the decision of the court was greeted with impressive
responses from Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and his party’s
dismissed lawmaker. The Governor while congratulating the PDP
candidate, Hon Agboola in a statement described the court
pronouncement as the “beauty of democracy” adding that “As respecters
of the rule of law and decorum, we submit to the position of their
Lordships and congratulate our brother from the opposition party.
“Lessons have been learnt on all sides. The development will no doubt
enrich our democracy and constitutional development as a country. On
behalf of the Kwara State Government and leaders of our party, the
APC, we call on Hon. Jimoh AbdulRaheem Agboola to join us in the
patriotic duty to rebuild Kwara State that all of us can be proud of
and urge him to see issues beyond partisan lens”, the statement noted.
Following in the footstep of the Governor, the sacked lawmaker, Elewu
in a statement by his PRO, Adio Sodiq, congratulated his opponent and
described the development as one of the prestige of democracy. He
“submitted to the position of the lordships and congratulated the
opposition party’s candidate, Hon Jimoh Abdulraheem Agboola and prayed
that his tenure bring more development and unity to the constituency”.
But signs that Agboola’s invitation by the ruling government may no
longer be required emerged shortly afterwards when news filtered in
that Hon Elewu after the congratulatory message, was attending plenary
despite the pronouncement of the court to the contrary. As the issue
raged and some opponents began to haul missiles at the leadership of
the Kwara State House of Assembly for allegedly promoting and
condoning impunity by its decision to allow Hon Elewu to continue to
attend plenary, the Speaker, Engr. Danladi Yakubu-Salihu justified the
action of the 9th legislature. In a statement by his media aide,
Ibrahim Sherif saying, the sacked APC candidate is still a member of
the parliament pending the swearing-in of the PDP lawmaker premised on
the presentation of Certificate of Return by INEC.
“Consequent upon the controversy generated over reports about Hon.
Abddulazeez Hassan Elewu, …I will like to state as follows:
“That Hon. Abdulazeez Hassan Elewu remains the recognised member,
representing Ilorin South constituency, as no other person, except
him, has a Certificate of Return from INEC before the Kwara State
House of Assembly.
“That KWHA can only recognise any person with a certified Certificate
of Return, which the report also confirmed, is yet to be issued to
anyone else. The 9th Assembly leadership, being the custodian of the
constitution is a respecter of the rule of law and would do nothing
that contravenes it”, the statement added.
That promise was however called to question as things further got
complicated and twisted when Agboola was not only denied swearing-in,
but deprived of the submission of his certificate presented to him by
INEC as no official was ready to collect it at the Assembly even
though the Clerk and Speaker were not around.
But rather than recognising the certificate and swear Agboola in, the
tone of the lawmakers changed. He was asked to present an accompanying
letter from INEC, a move the Commission strongly rejected.
________________
According to sources in the Commission who spoke with Pilot Politics
on the issue, “What they (lawmakers) are saying is gibberish. When
this same legislator (Elewu) was declared by the court, did we give
him and all other members of the legislature any accompany letter?
Where is that done? We have contacted our National Headquarters and
they said there is nothing like that (issuing additional letter), that
the Certificate of Return sufficed from us to swear him in as the
winner of the disputed election as declared by the court”, the INEC
official added.
While the issue was being interrogated and appraised by political
observers the sacked APC lawmaker who has continued to attend plenary
despite concerns raised by his opponent and observers alike raced to
the Federal High Court in Ilorin insisting that he remains the
rightful winner of the disputed seat. He consequently dragged the
House of Assembly, Speaker and INEC to court urging the judiciary to
determine the legality of the Appeal Court ruling in the matter.
In the suit numbered FHC/IL/CS/157/2019 slated for Monday (today),
Elewu who joined the Clerk of the House Halima Jumai Kperogi as
defendants argued in the originating summon, that in view of the
judgement and order of the Federal High Court, Ilorin Division of 27th
February, 2019 in suit number FHC/IL/CS/8/2019; himself (Elewu) being
the plaintiff was declared as the lawful and legal candidate of the
All Progressives Congress, (APC) for Ilorin South State Constituency
against another aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Suleiman Abdulsalam.
The lawmaker claimed he partook in the election process from the party
primaries stage and won, up till the general election, consequent upon
which he was issued Certificate of Return by the electoral umpire,
INEC and sworn-in on June 11th, 2019 as a legislator in the 9th Kwara
Assembly.
He said, he was however dismayed why another Court will rule or order
INEC to issue the PDP candidate Certificate of Return, as a result of
an Appeal Court Judgement where he (Elewu) is not even a party in the
first place, when a subsisting court judgement/order declaring him
(Elewu) the lawful candidate of the APC have not been set aside.
He argued further that the case, which occasioned the Judgement
ordering INEC to issue Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate,
with suit number CA/IL/EPT/SH/2/2019 was between Jimoh Raheem Agboola
and Sulaiman Sheu Abdulsalam and two others, which he claimed not to
be one of them. He claimed, that by virtue of the judgement and order
of the Federal High Court, Ilorin Division of 27th February, 2019,
declaring him (Elewu) the lawful and legal candidate of the APC for
Ilorin South State Constituency for the March, 2019 election, which
was won by his party, APC, he was and remains the duly elected, and
member of the Kwara State House of Assembly.
However, the PDP lawmaker punctured Elewu’s argument in his reaction
to the defence of the APC lawmaker this time around.
“Yes, we challenged Suleiman Shehu at the tribunal, but Hon Elewu has
nothing to do with INEC because he didn’t contest the election in the
first place. What really interplayed was that the substitution of
Suleiman Shehu by the APC was done after the Presidential and National
Assembly election in March which was outside the stipulated time. The
APC then told INEC that it submitted the name of Shehu in error which
was what it relied upon to get judgement. Now at the tribunal, this
same judgement was brought and the court said it was not tenable and
even went ahead to blame INEC for giving Certificate of Return to
somebody who didn’t even fill INEC form in the first place accusing
them (INEC) of turning themselves to a Father Charismas.
“While APC’s appeal at the appellate court argued that Elewu was
lawfully changed, our plea was that the party didn’t have any
candidate at the time the election was conducted for the constituency
and the appeal court then ruled that Elewu’s certificate earlier
issued by INEC be withdrawn and a fresh one given to me as the
runner-up in the election.
“The court even went further to fine Elewu N50,000 which we are still
expecting him to pay. That is just the scenario and the position of
the APC is uncalled for”, he noted. Hon Agboola added that although
anybody can approach the court to claim or say anything regarding
Elewu’s position, the fact of the matter would unveil itself on Monday
(today) by the grace of God.
As things stand now, Elewu is the one that personally instituted the
case against the PDP lawmaker without his party, the APC. But whether
he has the jurisprudential right to do that is another ball game
altogether. Also, what is the propriety or otherwise of approaching
the High Court, a lower court in this instance, to rule on a case that
has already been decided by the Appeal Court, a higher jurisprudence
which some critics have said was tantamount to abuse of court time and
process. However, all roads lead to the High Court, today.
