The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday refused the request of former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, for an interim injunction to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from submitting the name of Mr. Jimi Agbaje to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its standard-bearer for Lagos State governorship election in 2015.

The court reached that decision following an ex parte application moved on behalf of Obanikoro by his counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), praying it to restrain PDP and INEC from dealing with Agbaje as the former’s standard-bearer in the 2015 governorship race.

However, in his ruling, rather than accede to Obanikoro’s request, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed ordered him to put the defendants on notice for them to appear in court to show cause why the order should not be granted.

Obanikoro, had accused a leader of the PDP in Lagos State, Chief Olabode George, and the governorship candidate of the party in the state, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, of recruiting armed thugs to achieve their aims at the governorship primaries held on December 8.

This is contained an affidavit which he filed before a Federal High Court in Abuja in support of his suit   challenging the conduct of the December 8, 2014 governorship primaries in which Agbaje was declared the winner.
Obanikoro said: “Also saw the police recovered five guns and rounds of ammunition and live cartridges from the thugs brought by George and Agbaje, a co-aspirant.”

Obanikoro with 343 votes came second behind Agbaje who polled 432 votes to clinch the party’s ticket. Three other candidates participated in the poll.
But the former minster in a suit filed on December 15, urged the court to nullify the primaries and order a fresh one to be conducted on the grounds of alleged electoral irregularities that marred the December 8, 2014 exercise.

On Wednesday, the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed refused to grant any ex parte application against Agbaje and the party. Rather, the judge asked the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission to appear in court on December 23 to come ND show cause why he should not grant Obanikoro’s request.

He directed the two defendants in the suit to appear in court to show cause why  he (the judge) should not make an order of interim injunction restraining them from presenting or accepting any name as the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State pending the determination of the suit.

The judge however declined to grant the restraining order as sought by the plaintiff’s counsel through the ex parte application.
Instead of granting the order, Justice Mohammed asked the plaintiff to put the defendants on notice for them to appear in court to show cause why the order should not be granted.

The former minister alleged in his suit filed on December 18 that the election was marred by electoral irregularities such as over-voting, intimidation of his delegates by thugs loyal to George and Agbaje as well as improper accreditation of delegates.

He said there were 806 delegates accredited for the primaries but “surprisingly from the 806 accredited delegates; the electoral officers returned a total number of 866 votes.”

He added that the accreditation of delegates which ought to last between 8a.m and 12noon as stipulated by the Electoral Guidelines published by the PDP, did not start until as late as 6.30p.m.

In an affidavit personally deposed to by him, Obanikoro stated, “That the thugs earlier brought by George and Agbaje, a co-aspirant, at this point began to disrupt the venue by throwing  bottles, stones and firing gunshots in the direction of the delegates loyal to me and preventing other delegates loyal to me from entering the venue.

“That the gunshots attracted another detachment of policemen, who engaged the thugs in a gun and teargas battle during which many of the delegates loyal to me ran for their dear lives to avoid being caught in the crossfire between the police and the armed thugs.

“That I know as a fact that many of my delegates who ran for their dear lives in the ensuing  violence  and gun battle never returned  and were consequently disenfranchised as it took the police several hours to restore some semblance of normalcy.

“That I saw that the police recovered five guns and rounds of ammunition and live cartridges from the thugs brought by George and Agbaje.”