An Ilorin High Court on Friday dismissed an application by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC) from conducting the October 26 local government elections.
Justice Suleiman Kawu in his ruling on the application said that the APC and its candidates did not show enough reasons to warrant him to grant the injunction.
Mr. Kawu, in dismissing the application, held that the applicants have failed to satisfy him on why he should stop the local government election.
“For this reason, the case is hereby dismissed”, he ruled.
The APC had approached the court with a motion for injunction restraining KWASIEC from conducting the election slated for October 26.
The motion for injunction was filed by the party’s counsel, Deji Gbadeyan, on Monday.
The counsel in his application joined the Kwara State Government, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, Social Democratic Party, Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and Independent Democrats as respondents.
Mr. Gbadeyan had urged the court to grant the injunction as the respondents were bent on going ahead with the election.
He said a suit challenging the validity, legality and the constitutionality of the proposed election was pending before the court and had been adjourned to November 7 for hearing.
He urged the court to grant his prayers and restrained the plaintiffs from going ahead with the council’s election.
The KWASIEC, in his 26-paragraph counter affidavit deposed to by the KWASIEC Commissioner in-Charge of Legal Matters, Tajudeen Ahmed, agreed that the matter was already in court.
The commission said its actions were guided by the relevant state and Electoral laws as well as the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The commission prayed the court to refuse APC’s request on the grounds that the tenure of the present local government councils would expire on November 27.
(NAN)
