Supreme Court sacks APC lawmaker

A member of the Edo State House of Assembly representing Ovia South West, Sunday Aghedo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was on Friday sacked by the Supreme Court.

The judgment delivered by the Apex Court also dismissed the appeals filed by the sacked lawmaker and his party, the APC.
In the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Dantijo Mohammed, the court declared Mr Godwin Adenomo also of the APC the winner of the general election in Ovia South-West constituency of Edo State House of Assembly held on April 11, 2015.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of Benin Division of the Court of Appeal Benin and held that Mr Godwin Adenomo won the APC primary election conducted by the APC held on the 2, December 2014 for nominating the party’s candidate for the general election held on 11th April 2015.
The Court consequently ordered the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly to swear in Mr Godwin Adenomo as a member of the Assembly representing Ovia South West constituency.
The apex court further ordered Hon Aghedo to refund all salaries and allowances he collected from Edo State House of Assembly from May 2015 to date to the Edo State House of Assembly within 90 days.
The court also awarded N300, 000 cost against Hon Aghedo, the appellant who had challenged the decision of the Court of Appeal Benin Division delivered by Justice Moore Asiemo Adumein.
The pre-election matter arose from the primary election in which Mr Godwin Adenomo scored the highest votes cast at the APC primary for Ovia South- West constituency in the Edo State House of Assembly, scoring 152 votes against 140 scored by Mr Sunday Aghedo.
Instead of submitting Adenomo name, his opponent’s name was forwarded as the party’s candidate for the election and the three-man appeal panel set up by the party to look into his complaint upheld the decision of the party.
Dissatisfied with the decision of the party’s appeal panel, Adenomo dragged the APC and the primary election Committee to court over the imposition of the sacked lawmaker as the winner of the party primaries to the State House of Assembly in 2014.
He said he won the primaries but was denied the party’s ticket which was given to Aghedo.
The Federal High Court sitting in Benin had, in its judgement ordered the APC to conduct a fresh primary election for the position but Adenomo rejected the ruling and headed for the appellate court.
Aghedo not satisfied with the lower court’s judgment which set aside the decision of the party’s appeal panel and also invalidated the primary election conducted on 2nd December 2014 and the election held on 11th April 2015, headed to the Appeal court for redress.
The Court of Appeal set aside the judgment of the Federal High court and declared Adenomo winner of the election and the APC appealed to the Supreme Court claiming it has the right to sponsor a candidate of its choice.
Reacting to the judgment on Friday Mr Adenomo thanked the judiciary for standing for justice and advised politicians to always seek redress in court instead of restoring to violence any time they feel cheated