The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the candidacy of Ekiti State Governor, Abiodun Oyebanji, in the forthcoming governorship election, after dismissing an appeal filed by a member of the All Progressives Congress, Mrs Abimbola Olawumi, challenging the outcome of the party’s primary.

In a unanimous judgment delivered on Thursday, a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, held that Olawumi’s appeal was incompetent.

The court found that the appellant’s brief of argument, filed on April 30, violated Paragraph 14(a) of the Electoral Proceedings Practice Direction 2023, having been filed in contravention of the court’s rules.

Justice Banjoko, who read the lead judgment, upheld the objection raised by the respondents the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission and Governor Oyebanji against the competence of the appellant’s brief of argument.

The appellate court held that the brief, having been filed in breach of the applicable rules, was incompetent and liable to be struck out.

Justice Banjoko further held that once the appellant’s brief was struck out, the appeal was left unsupported by any argument and therefore became incompetent and liable to dismissal.

The court also rejected the appellant’s request that it should invoke its powers under Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act to assume trial jurisdiction and hear the matter on its merits.

Justice Banjoko held that the substance of the dispute revolved around the internal screening and eligibility process of the APC, which falls within the internal affairs of a political party.

The court further held that Olawumi’s case would still have failed even if her brief had been competent, because the issues raised were not justiciable and the suit was statute-barred, having been filed outside the time allowed by law, as earlier found by the trial court.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld part of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, which had held that the suit was filed out of time, that the issues raised were not justiciable, and that Oyebanji was duly nominated to contest the June 20 governorship election as the APC candidate.

The appellate court also allowed the cross-appeal filed by Governor Oyebanji challenging the part of the Federal High Court’s judgment which held that Olawumi qualified as an aspirant.

In the lead judgment on the cross-appeal, Justice Oyebiola Oyewumi held that the trial judge erred when he found that Olawumi was an aspirant within the contemplation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022.

Justice Oyewumi resolved the sole issue identified for determination against Olawumi and set aside the trial court’s finding that she was an aspirant.

The decision effectively affirmed Oyebanji’s nomination as the APC candidate and brought Olawumi’s challenge to the party’s primary to an end at the appellate court.

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