Supreme Court Upholds Adeleke’s Candidature
THE Supreme Court of Nigeria, on Thursday, September 29, upheld the July 16 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election that produced the Osun State governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as its candidate.
The five-member panel, in a judgment delivered by Justice Amina Augie, held that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit after Counsel for the appellant and a PDP governorship aspirant, Dotun Babayemi, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), withdrew the earlier notice of appeal that was filed within time.
Upon resumed hearing in the matter Adelodun, who appeared for the Babayemi, informed the court that he sought to withdraw the earlier notice of appeal to replace it with the fresh application he filed.
But the panel held that Section 285(11) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) stipulated that an appeal on a pre-election matter must be filed within 14 days from the day of the decision, and that having filed the second appeal out of time, the apex court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter
Justice Augie, therefore, dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
Babayemi had asked the Federal High Court in Osogbo to void the primary election that produced Adeleke over non-compliance with a court order.
In his judgment on May 18, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel upheld the governorship primary that produced Adeleke.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Babayemi approached the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, which in its judgment on July 20, upheld the lower court judgment and dismissed the appeal.
