Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has struck out a suit challenging the nomination of Senator Ademola Adeleke as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded Osun State governorship election.

Justice Egwuatu, in his judgment, yesterday, struck out the case on the ground that the plaintiff, an aggrieved member of the PDP, Mr. Lukman Awoyemi, lacked locus standi to file the suit and also the suit was lacking in merit.

The judge also held that the suit was statute barred having been fixed outside the 14 days stipulated by Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution, which states that all pre-election suits must be filed within 14 days, whereas the instant case was filed after 28 days. The grouse of the plaintiff was that Adeleke’s name was hurriedly submitted by PDP on March 11 as against March 14 and 18 as contained in the commission’s guidelines.

The plaintiff asked the court to declare the submission of Adeleke’s name illegal, unlawful, null and void and be set aside, having not been submitted within the period fixed by INEC.

He claimed that INEC must be bound by its official guidelines and that anything done outside the guidelines is against the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

However, the judge agreed with the submissions of the PDP and Adeleke that Awoyemi does not have the necessary locus standi to challenge Adeleke’s nomination in the first place.

The defendants also claimed that Awoyemi was not an aspirant in the governorship polls or a member of the party.