Supreme court affirms Adeleke as PDP candidate for Osun election

THE Supreme Court has affirmed Ademola Adeleke as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s for the July 16 governorship election in Osun State.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Amina Augie, the five-member panel held that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit after the counsel for the appellant, Adebayo Adelodun, withdrew the earlier notice of appeal that was filed within time.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Adelodun, who appeared for the appellant and a PDP governorship aspirant, Dotun Babayemi, announced that he was withdrawing the earlier notice of appeal to replace it with the fresh application he filed upon resuming the hearing in the matter.

But the panel held that Section 285(11) of the constitution 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.

The judge, therefore, dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

Babayemi had asked the court to invalidate the primary election that produced the governor-elect, citing non-compliance with a court order.

In his judgment on May 18, Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court in Osogbo upheld the governorship primary that produced Adeleke.

Also, the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, in its judgment of July 20 on the appeal filed against the decision of the Federal High Court, Osogbo, aligned with the lower court and dismissed Babayemi’s appeal.