The Supreme Court has upheld the nomination of Governor Abiodun Oyebanji as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the June 20 governorship election in Ekiti State.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by APC governorship aspirant, Mrs. Abimbola Olawumi, describing it as lacking merit.
The ruling affirmed the earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, delivered on June 18, which validated Oyebanji’s emergence as the APC’s governorship candidate.
The Supreme Court also held that the appeal was incompetent and ruled that the reliefs sought by Olawumi could not be granted, thereby bringing the legal challenge to an end.
Mrs. Olawumi had, among others, queried the process leading to Oyebanji’s nomination and prayed the court to void the outcome of the APC’s governorship primary on the grounds that she was allegedly prevented from participating as an aspirant.
Justice Mohammed Idris, who prepared and read the lead judgment of the Supreme Court on Friday, upheld the objections raised against the competence of some applications filed by the appellant on July 16 and 23 to regularise her notice of appeal and the appellant’s brief of arguments.
Justice Idris found that the written address accompanying the application of July 16 was not signed and that its pagination also exceeded the number allowed under Order 4 Rule 1 of the Supreme Court’s Rules.
The judge proceeded to strike out both applications and the accompanying written addresses.
He also found that grounds one, two and three of the appeal are incompetent having not emanate from the decision of the lower court.
Justice Idris held that since the three grounds were incompetent, the issues distilled from the were also incompetent and are liable to be struck out.
In determining the surviving grounds four, five and six and issues three and four distilled from them, Justice Idris held that the lower court was not in error when it held that Mrs. Olawumi’s brief was incompetent despite a pending application to regularise it.
He also upheld the lower court’s decision in refusing to invoke its power under Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act to hearing Mrs. Olawumi’s originating summons as a court of first instance as sought by the appellant.
The judge said the lower court could not have invoked its powers under Section 15 of its Act to hear the hear the substantive originating summons having affirmed the finding of the Federal High Court that the suit was statute barred.
Justice Idris further held that the Supreme Court could not also invoke its power under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear the substantive originating summons as sought by the appellant because the 180 days provided in the Constitution for the determination of pre-election cases has lapsed.
