PDP Primary: Supreme Court Upholds Adeleke’s Election

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, upheld the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship primary election that produced the Osun Governor-elect, Sen. Ademola Adeleke, as its candidate for the July 16 Governorship election in the state.

The five-member panel, in a judgment delivered by Justice Amina Augie, held that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit after counseling for the appellant, 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 appellant and a PDP governorship aspirant, Dotun Babayemi, informed 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 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

Justice Augie, therefore, dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

Recall that 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 the matter on May 18, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of a Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo, had 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.