Smart Adeyemi loses suit against Yahaya Bello’s pick Usman Ododo
Smart Adeyemi, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress who equally vied for his party’s Kogi state governorship ticket, has lost his suit challenging the winner of the primary election.
Usman Ododo had emerged the party’s candidate but his challengers for the ticket complained that outgoing governor, Yahaya Bello, manipulated the process to favour the winner.
In the ruling delivered on Wednesday, Justice James Omotosho held that Adeyemi’s claim lacked merit. The judge stated that Adeyemi failed to establish his claim that the primary election did not hold and that the result showing a winner was forged.
The court further held that, despite his presenting a criminal case, Adeyemi failed to prove the forgery claim beyond reasonable doubt.
The court, therefore, dismissed the suit. Adeyemi, a veteran journalist and emerged the national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) between 1999 and 2006.
Adeyemi’s first gambit in politics was his winning a senate seat in 2007 and, later, in 2011 under now opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
