Breaking: Supreme Court Gives Verdict on APC Governorship Primary
- The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by APC aspirant Abimbola Olawumi against Biodun Oyebanji's governorship nomination in Ekiti state
- A five-member panel unanimously faulted the competence of Olawumi's appeal, striking out key applications and multiple grounds of appeal
- Justice Mohammed Idris found that the constitutional 180-day window for determining pre-election cases had already lapsed
Nigeria's Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal challenging Governor Abiodun Oyebanji's nomination as the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the June 20 Ekiti State governorship election, affirming the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja dated June 18.
The five-member apex court panel delivered a unanimous judgment on Friday, ruling that the appeal brought by APC aspirant Abimbola Olawumi lacked merit and could not succeed.
Source: Twitter
Ekiti APC guber primary: Why the appeal failed
Justice Mohammed Idris, who wrote and delivered the lead judgment, identified several procedural defects that rendered Olawumi's appeal incompetent from the outset. Two applications she filed on July 16 and 23, seeking to regularise her notice of appeal and her brief of arguments, were struck out after the court found that the written address attached to the July 16 application was unsigned and that its pagination breached Order 4 Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules.
The Nation reported that Justice Idris further held that grounds one, two, and three of the appeal were invalid because they did not arise from the actual decision of the lower court. Since those grounds were struck out, the legal issues drawn from them were equally incompetent and could not stand.
On the remaining grounds four, five, and six, the court held that the Court of Appeal was correct in ruling Olawumi's brief incompetent, even though she had a regularisation application pending at the time.
Ekiti: Constitutional time limit bars further action
The court also rejected Olawumi's request for the Supreme Court to invoke Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear her originating summons directly. Justice Idris ruled that this was impossible because the 180-day constitutional deadline for resolving pre-election matters had already expired.
He added that the Court of Appeal similarly could not have used Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act to hear the matter as a court of first instance, given that the Federal High Court had already found the original suit to be statute-barred.
Olawumi had challenged the process through which Oyebanji secured the APC's governorship ticket, alleging she was prevented from participating in the party's primary election and asking the court to nullify the outcome.
With Friday's ruling, all judicial avenues to challenge Oyebanji's candidacy ahead of the Ekiti governorship contest have been exhausted.
Source: Twitter
Plateau lawmaker denies dumping APC
Legit.ng earlier reported that Hon. Adamu Aliyu, who represents Jos North in the Plateau State House of Assembly, publicly addressed rumours of his exit from the APC.
The lawmaker pointed to disputes from recent APC primaries as the source of the rumours, alleging failed aspirants were behind them.
The Jos North APC local government chairman backed Aliyu's denial, saying the party received no formal resignation communication.
Source: Legit.ng
