It has been said that the Federal High Court’s decision on Friday to declare Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, unable to run as the governor and deputy governor candidates for the Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next election is “dead on arrival.”
Ibrahim Lawal, the governor of Osun State’s attorney, stated this while responding to inquiries on a radio program in Osogbo on Monday. He also called the judgment a sham.
Ibrahim added that the case brought by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was a nullity, distraction, and intentional plot to thwart the petitioners’ substantive case—Governor Oyetola and the APC—before the Osun Election Petition Tribunal. Ibrahim also mentioned that the Supreme Court had rendered a decision in a comparable case in 2021.
It had been reported that the nominations of the Osun Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, for the Osun gubernatorial election on July 16 had been revoked on Friday by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
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The nomination of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and Benedict Alabi by the APC was ruled invalid and voidable by the presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite.
The court also held that Governor Buni holding dual executive positions as the Governor of Yobe State and the Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the APC acted in contravention of the provision of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Lawal, while expressing confidence in the ability of the legal team of Governor Oyetola to overturn the judgment of the Federal High Court, explained that the team is 100 percent convinced that the decision of the Federal High Court against Oyetola and his deputy cannot see the light of the day.
He argued that the decision and the consequence of nominating a candidate rest in the congress of the party at the State level as affirmed by the Supreme Court in the case of Eyitayo Jegede and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2021.
“The action which the Federal High Court pronounced was statute barred as the decision the court was talking about had happened in March as against April when the matter was brought before it.
“The judgment was clear as to the issue of sponsorship and nomination of candidates and one cannot substitute any other ground except as stated in Section 177 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
Arguing that the petitioners (PDP) did not file their process until April, clearly 14 days after the time they were supposed to file their matter, Lawal held that the Court shouldn’t have entertained it in the first place.
“These are the issues we brought to court but for reasons best known to the judge, with due respect to the judge of the Federal High Court, they ruled otherwise.
“The reason we have layers of the Court was that when you are dissatisfied with a judgment of Lower Court, you go to another Court, and Electoral Act is very clear, when a matter is at the Court, nothing can be done on it until it gets to a final stage, the status quo remains.
“By the grace of God, we are filing a notice of appeal tomorrow challenging the ruling because the decision taken by the Federal High Court, in the eye of the law is perverse and against the established principle of law that had been laid down by the Supreme Court.
“We are not deterred and it has nothing to do with the issue that is ongoing at the tribunal. What we call judicial precedents are the facts that the sanctity of the laws had settled some cases by higher courts and the lower court cannot go to the contrary. When there are established decisions of the superior court, no lower court can go, on the contrary, any court that does so has committed what we call judicial rascality.
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“So, I am very sure that this matter will be set aside by the Court of Appeal.”
Lawal reiterated that the impact of the judgment on the case cannot in any way prevent the Osun Election Petition Tribunal from going ahead.
Recall also that the Osun Election Petition Tribunal on Tuesday, September 26, 2022, adjourned sitting to Tuesday, October 4.
