Appeal Court Rules On Adeleke’s Eligibility For Osun Governorship

An Appeal Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State, has dismissed the nullification of Senator Ademola Adeleke’s eligibility to contest for the Osun State Governorship election.

The court dismissed the earlier ruling on three grounds which included; that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The second ground on which the case was dismissed was that the petitioner has no locus standi to file the case and third was that the matter was brought to court outside the stipulated 14 days after the conduct of the primary election.

With the ruling, the controversies surrounding the eligibility of the lawmaker to contest the election or hold the office as a governor might have ended.

The Appeal Court in its ruling dismissed an appeal against the judgment of an Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo which had earlier confirmed the eligibility of Adeleke to contest the governorship election.

An Osun State High Court had earlier ruled that Adeleke was qualified to contest for the governorship election, having been educated up to the secondary school level.

The petitioners, however, proceeded to appeal against the ruling, maintaining that the Senator was not qualified and therefore Dr Akin Ogunbiyi who is the second runner up at the governorship primary should be declared the winner of the primary election of the party.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to Adeleke, Nathaniel Oke said the latest judgment has knocked out the judgment of an Abuja High Court and rendered its conclusion ineffective, null and void with no effect on the candidacy of the PDP candidate for the September 2018 gubernatorial election.

He said the Abuja High court judgment had contradicted the Osogbo High court verdict by rejecting testimonies of WAEC, an examination body which in a sworn affidavit confirmed that Ademola Adeleke sat for its examination with attached results.

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