The July 16 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governorship primary election that produced the Osun Governor-elect, Sen. Ademola Adeleke, as its candidate was upheld by the Supreme Court, on Thursday.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Amina Augie, one of the five-member panel said that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit after counsel for the plaintiff, Adebayo Adelodun, SAN, withdrew the earlier notice of appeal which had been filed within time.
Adelodun, upon resumed hearing in the matter, 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 new application he filed.
Unfortunately, the panel held that Section 285(11) of the constitution specified 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.
Babayemi had prayed the court to nullify the primary election that produced the governor-elect, citing non-compliance with a court order.
Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of a Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo, in his judgment on May 18, had upheld the governorship primary that produced Adeleke.
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, had also aligned with the lower court and dismissed Babayemi’s appeal.
