A Federal ‎High Court in Abuja has ordered service of court papers on the All Progressive Congress in a suit instituted by an aspirant for the House of Representatives in Ondo State, Festus Ayodele, over alleged illegal substitution of his name submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Adefiranye is seeking to stand for election for the Odigbo/Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo Federal Constituency seat.

Apart from the APC, other defendants in the suit are Yejide Ogundipe, whose name was allegedly substituted with that of the plaintiff, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole gave the order of service on the APC and other defendants in his ruling on an ex-parte application seeking an order of substituted service on the defendants.

In his main suit, the plaintiff is praying the court to declare valid the results of the House of Representatives primary held by the party on December 7, 2014 where he polled the highest number of votes and declared the party’s candidate.

He also prayed the court to direct the party to forward his name to INEC as its candidate for the House of Representatives election in the constituency.

He also prayed for a mandatory order compelling INEC to accept and publish his name as the party’s candidate for the election.

The plaintiff is therefore seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from accepting and publishing the name of the first defendant (Ogundipe) as the APC candidate for the election.

The plaintiff submitted that he emerged as the candidate of the party in the primary with the highest votes of 191, while Ogundipe got 189 votes, Emmanuel Adedeji 100 votes and Pius Akingba 13 votes.

The case was adjourned till March 2 for hearing.

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