The Supreme Court has upheld the nomination of Governor Abiodun Oyebanji as the All Progressives Congress candidate for the June 20 governorship election in Ekiti State.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, the apex court affirmed the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which validated Oyebanji’s candidacy.
The case followed an appeal filed by an aggrieved APC governorship aspirant, Mrs Abimbola Olawumi, who challenged the process that produced Oyebanji as the party’s candidate.
Justice Mohammed Idris delivered the lead judgment on behalf of the five-member panel of the Supreme Court.
The court upheld objections raised against the competence of some applications filed by Olawumi to regularise her notice of appeal and written arguments.
The panel concluded that the appeal lacked merit and dismissed it.
Justice Idris held that some procedural documents submitted by the appellant failed to comply with the Supreme Court Rules.
According to the judgment, the written address filed with one of the applications was unsigned, while its pagination exceeded the limit permitted under Order 4 Rule 1 of the court’s rules.
The Supreme Court also ruled that the first three grounds of appeal were incompetent because they did not arise from the decision of the Court of Appeal.
The issues formulated from those grounds were consequently struck out.
In considering the remaining grounds, the apex court held that the Court of Appeal was right to declare Olawumi’s suit incompetent, despite the existence of a pending application seeking to regularise it.
The Supreme Court agreed with the lower courts that the original action was filed outside the legally prescribed period and was therefore statute-barred.
It further held that the Court of Appeal could not use its powers under Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act to determine the substantive originating summons after affirming that the suit was filed out of time.
Justice Idris also said the Supreme Court could not invoke Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear the originating summons.
He explained that the 180-day period provided by the Constitution for determining pre-election matters had already expired.
Olawumi had challenged the conduct of the APC governorship primary that produced Oyebanji as the party’s candidate.
She alleged that she was prevented from participating in the exercise as an aspirant and asked the court to invalidate the outcome of the primary.
With the dismissal of the appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed the rulings of the lower courts and sustained Oyebanji’s nomination as the APC candidate for the Ekiti governorship election.
