Kwara APC Crisis: Implications of S’Court pronouncement on Balogun-Fulani, Bolarinwa factions       

By Mumini Abdulkareem

The lingering crisis rocking the Kwara State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress reached a cresendo on Wednesday following the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the matter.
The Apex Court, which had earlier on Monday fixed April 10 (yesterday) to hear the case following an appeal by the Ishola Balogun-Fulani led faction because of lack of hearing notices not served on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the caretaker chairman of the party in the state, Bashiru Bolarinwa, threw out the suit in entirety for not following proper process.
Balogun-Fulani, through his counsel, Kehinde Eleja (SAN), had approached the court to challenge the powers of the National chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomole and contended that he (Oshiomole) had arbitrarily dissolve the state executive committee of the party when their four year tenure had not expired.
According to the Senior Advocate,  his client want the court to restrain Oshiomole from further recognition and dealing with Bolarinwa’s group as the officer of the party in the state and further prayed the court for another order of court stopping the INEC from accepting nominations of candidates for the 2019 general elections, except nomination by his group.
At the lower court, a High Court in Ilorin had in February, ruled in favour of the appellant (Balogun-Fulani) but the judgment was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Ilorin division on the grounds that the case of the Balogun Fulani group had become an academic exercise prompting the movement to the Supreme Court.
Both parties had argued out their case at the Apex court on Monday and while Eleja drew the attention of the court to the fact that the case must be determined before April 12 because it was a pre-election matter whose duration is 60 days in the court which shall expire on April 12, his opponents and counsel to the Oshiomhole group, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), however attempted to convince the court that the matter was not a pre-election case. Olujimi said the matter rather, was a mere dissolution of the state exco but Justice Vivour, who presided over the panel, turned down the arguments of Olujinmi because APC, in its processes filed from the High court, had admitted that it was a pre-election matter.
As such, the stage was set for pronouncement of the apex court yesterday which affirmed the judgment of the appellate court.
While striking out the appeal, on Wednesday, filed by the Ishola Balogun-Fulani’s faction, the apex court said the case was not properly filed before the court.
According to the five-man panel led by  Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour in a unanimous decision, the case lacked merit as it is deemed not to be before the court and dismissed the case contending that the processes of the appeals did not follow the rules of the court.
The decision thus effectively affirmed the Appeal Court ruling on the leadership tussle in the state chapter of the party in Kwara State.
In its ruling in February, the Appeal Court had said the Kwara State High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter because the Balogun-Fulani’s case was incurably defective from the beginning
The Kwara State High Court had said Balogun-Fulani was the authentic chairman of the party — a position the Appeal Court rejected. The Appeal Court had held that the High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter because various conditions precedent were not met, saying the court had acted in error to hear it at all.
The Appeal Court had earlier in February in an interlocutory appeal upheld the nomination of the Kwara Governor-elect AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq as candidate of the APC.
The court had contended in the judgement that the state executive committee of a party is only an appendage of its national headquarters and is not imbued with the powers to conduct primaries for national elections.
However, some political analysts, politicians and legal experts based in the state have earlier reacted to the possible judgement of the Supreme Court depending n were the pendulum swings.
According to a political scientist of Department of Political Science, University of Ilorin, Prof Hassan Saliu, the judgement of the court will have implications for the party.
According to a professor of political science, Prof Hassan Saliu of the University of Ilorin, the pronouncement of the Supreme Court should not be allowed to cause violence in the state but rather see it as democracy in action.
“I congratulate both parties especially the Governor-elect and those who have lost should not consider they have lost but should rather see it as democracy in action and they should up their mind whether to remain with the recognised faction of the party or pitch tent with the PDP and they are free to do so. Also, Kwara state is going to wetness a new government after some decades and those who have lost in the election should not see it as the end of the world has come. The new people have four years to pull themselves and all hands should be on deck. If they are able to do well, the provision is in the constitution is there for second term but if they don’t do well, Kwara will decide what to do in 2023.  But let us maintain the peace, the judgment should not be an avenue for breach of peace because we are all Kwarans and we should think of development the state together”, he added.
But according to Barrister Muhammed Abeni (SAN) who spoke to Pilot Politics earlier before the pronouncement of the apex court said: “Although I don’t have much fact about the matter, if the judgment favours the factions that did not contest the election, that might set the election aside and call for another one to be held. It is not that the faction that did not contest will automatically become the governor.
“What happened in Rotimi Amaechi’s case cannot happen again because the law has been amended. What can only be done is to go back and ask them (both parties) to recontest. I cannot remember the provision in the Electoral Act now which made it compulsory for anybody that did not contest election to become the governor automatically because the other side has been disqualified and I don’t want to be quoted wrongly.
“But if otherwise, it favours the faction that have benefitted now, then they have already contested and won the election and the status quo will remain”, he noted.
For Hon Abraham Ashaolu, former lawmaker of the 7th Assembly in Kwara State, “Well, if the BF faction wins, it means all things done by the BOB faction becomes a nullity and by implication, it means the nomination for the candidates of the BOB faction for the next election will become null and void. Whoever wins among them is the faction that has the authentic candidates for the last election.
“And since BF faction has their candidates, those candidates I believe will be jubilating”.
But when asked the implication of such on the polity, he said “whether BF, BOB factions or even PDP, SDP or any other party for that matter, all those who contested the election are from Kwara and anyone that is legally found to be on the right party is the one who is our elected group. That is the interpretation and we have seen how similar issue has played out in other states”.
In the words of Hon Kamal Oyekunle Fagbemi, a lawmaker from Oyun, “In this case, it depends on the way the judgment goes and we have to look at the nitty-gritty of the matter.
“Does the mater in the Supreme Court falls in the confines of challenging the primaries that led to the emergence of the Governor-Elect, AbdurRahman AbdulRazaq or does it only affects the dissolution of the executive council of the party in the state?
“It is on this premise that we have to look at it. Was his primary challenged and if no, can one bring an issue that is not before the court….When you look at everything holistically, one can say as at the time the Bolarinwa faction was constituted, the matter was subjudice and APC ought to have allowed the court to decide one way or the other. So it is neither here nor there and I don’t want to preempt the court being a lawyer. But if it favours Balogun Fulani, whatever steps that have been taken by the BOB faction will be declared null and void”
But now that matter is settled, all parties will now have to regroup and re-strategise.
All efforts to get the reaction of former PDP chairman in the state and a beneficiary of the current situation, Iyiola Oyedepo, was not successful as several calls to his line were not answered.