Benue 2027: Court asked to stop Ortom’s anointed candidate from contesting

Four indigenes of Benue State have prayed the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain former Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, from contesting the 2027 governorship election in the state.

Aondoakaa is vying for the 2027 governorship election in Benue on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He has the backing of the immediate past governor of the state, Samuel Ortom, and other top PDP leaders at the national level.

In a suit filed by their lawyer, Fredricks Itula, SAN, the plaintiffs prayed Justice Joyce Abdulmalik to grant the reliefs sought.

They cited a previous Supreme Court judgment which they claimed had barred Aondoakaa from holding any other office except the office of the AGF.

The applicants are David Ejembi, Aondoaver Teryila, Joseph Okpanachi and Benedict Orkume, named as the 1st to 4th plaintiffs on the face of the originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2152/2026.

They said they were registered voters in Benue.

The plaintiffs sued the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, PDP and Aondoakaa as the 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively.

They urged the court to declare that INEC is under a constitutional obligation to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Michael Kaase Aondoakaa v. Obot (2022) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1824) 523 by stopping the PDP from sponsoring Aondoakaa to contest the 2027 governorship election in Benue.

They argued that this is in line with the provisions of Sections 235 and 287(1), read together with the meaning of “public office of a state” in Section 318(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

They prayed the court for an order of declaration that, by a combined construction of the above provisions of the law, INEC is under a constitutional obligation to comply with the apex court judgment.

They also prayed for an order of declaration that, by a combined construction of the above provisions of the law, the PDP is under a constitutional obligation to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court by terminating the sponsorship of Aondoakaa’s candidature for the poll.

The plaintiffs, therefore, sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the commission from allowing the PDP to sponsor Aondoakaa to contest the 2027 Benue governorship election.

They equally prayed the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining Aondoakaa from contesting the election.

When the case was called on Monday, Itula informed Justice Abdulmalik of his inability to effect service of the court processes on Aondoakaa, the 3rd defendant.

Following this development, the lawyer said an ex parte motion for substituted service had been filed.

He said the motion sought an order to serve the 3rd defendant through the office of the 2nd defendant, PDP.

After the motion was moved, the judge granted the application.

She ruled that a copy of the service shall be forwarded to the court as evidence of service.

The judge also ordered that hearing notices be served on all the defendants and adjourned the case until Sept. 29 for further mention, NAN reports.