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Nigeria: Supreme Court Affirms Victory of PDP Lawmaker Rejected By Kwara Assembly

The Supreme Court, on Monday, affirmed the election of Jimoh Agboola of the Peoples Democratic Party as a member of the Kwara State House of Assembly.

The assembly had defied multiple court judgments and refused to swear in Mr Agboola, the only lawmaker elected from the opposition party in the 2019 election.

Mr Agboola, who served in the previous assembly, ran again for the Ilorin South state constituency in 2019.

After the March 9, 2019 election, his opponent, Azeez Oluwanilo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner and sworn in. But Mr Agboola contested the outcome of the election at the election petition tribunal.

While the tribunal ordered a fresh election, the Court of Appeal declared the PDP candidate as the elected candidate.

Mr Oluwanilo’s victory was upturned by the appellate court which ruled that he did not submit his name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), thereby nullifying the certificate of return issued.

The assembly did not swear in Mr Agboola after the judgment, despite protests by the lawmaker, his party and civil society organisations.

However, in another ruling in July, the appeal court ordered the Assembly to swear him in, affirming the judgment it delivered in November 2019.

Rather than obey the court, the assembly challenged the ruling at the apex court in Abuja, which on Monday struck out the application.