Osun Guber: Supreme Court Upholds Adeleke’s Victory, Dismisses Babayemi’s Prayer

By Akinwale Kasali

It was celebration galore in the camp of the Governor-elect of Osun State,  Ademola Adeleke, as the Supreme Court dismissed a suit filed against him by Dotun Babayemi.

Babayemi had prayed the Apex Court to set aside the decisions of the lower courts and declare him the PDP candidate for the July 16, 2023 Governorship election in Osun State.

The five-member Justices of the apex court, presided over by Justices Amina Augie held that the appeal, as filed by the appellant was filed out of time as a pre-election matter is time-bound.

While stating that “a pre-election matter has a period of 14 days, and like a rock of Gibraltar, cannot be moved”, the court added that there was nothing before the court to invoke its jurisdiction.

Efforts by Counsel to the appellant, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), to convince the Panel to take a look at the merits of the appeal proved abortive as the court held that it lacks jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

The Appeal, having been withdrawn by the counsel to the appellant, the court consequently dismissed it.

It would be recalled that prior to the Osun Guber polls, different  primaries produced Babayemi and Adeleke but the National Working Committee of the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission recognised Adeleke as the authentic candidate of the party.

Babayemi challenged the recognition of Adeleke as the candidate of the party before the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal Court but lost and he approached the Supreme Court after Adeleke emerged the authentic candidate of the party because right delegates voted for him.

In his judgment on the matter on May 18, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of a Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo, upheld the governorship primary that produced Adeleke.

Also, 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, aligned with the lower court and dismissed Babayemi’s appeal.

Babayemi then, appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to set aside the judgments of the lower courts and declare him the governorship candidate of the PDP for the Osun state governorship election.

His appeal has now been declared dead on arrival by the Justices of the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision of the five-member panel of the court that was delivered by Justice Amina Augie.