Supreme Court upholds Oyebanji’s APC nomination, dismisses appeal

The Supreme Court has affirmed the nomination of Ekiti State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the June 20 governorship election, dismissing the appeal filed by party aspirant, Mrs Abimbola Olawumi.

In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that Olawumi’s appeal lacked merit and upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, which validated Oyebanji’s nomination.

Olawumi had challenged the APC governorship primary, alleging that she was unlawfully prevented from participating in the exercise and asking the court to nullify the primary that produced Oyebanji as the party’s candidate.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Idris upheld preliminary objections against applications filed by Olawumi on July 16 and July 23 seeking to regularise her notice of appeal and appellant’s brief.

The court held that the written address accompanying the July 16 application was unsigned, making it incompetent, and further ruled that it breached the pagination requirements under the Supreme Court Rules.

Consequently, the apex court struck out the applications and the accompanying written addresses.

The court also found that the first three grounds of appeal were incompetent because they did not arise from the judgment of the Court of Appeal, adding that the issues formulated from those grounds were equally invalid.

On the remaining grounds, Justice Idris ruled that the Court of Appeal was right to hold that Olawumi’s brief was incompetent despite her pending application to regularise it.

The Supreme Court further upheld the appellate court’s refusal to invoke its powers under Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act to determine the substantive suit.

According to the court, the Court of Appeal could not assume jurisdiction after affirming the Federal High Court’s finding that the case was statute-barred.

Justice Idris also held that the Supreme Court could not invoke its powers under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act because the constitutional 180-day time limit for determining pre-election matters had already expired.

The judgment brings to an end the legal challenge to Oyebanji’s emergence as the APC governorship candidate for the Ekiti governorship election.