The Supreme Court has affirmed Ademola Adeleke as the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the just concluded Osun State governorship election. 

A five member panel of the apex court dismissed the suit filed by Oyedotun Babayemi, following the withdrawal of the notice of appeal by the appellant.  

The panel, led by Justice Amina Augie on Thursday held that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit, having filed out of time . 

Backstory  

Mr. Babayemi, who is one of the governorship aspirants had approached the Osogbo division of the federal high court seeking to be declared the PDP candidate of the governorship election held on July 16 in the state.  

While the primary election conducted by the PDP national working committee produced Mr. Adeleke, another faction of PDP held another primary election at the Children and Women Development Centre in Osogbo, which produced Mr. Babayemi.  

However, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released its list of candidates, Mr. Adeleke was recognised as the duly-elected candidate for the PDP. 

On May 18, justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel, in his judgement, held that the primary, which produced Babayemi is null and void. 

Not satisfied with the judgement of the lower court, Mr. Babayemi approached the court of appeal in Akure challenging the decision of the federal high court. 

On July 20, the appellate court dismissed Mr. Babayemi’s appeal and upheld the judgement of the lower court.  

Subsequently, Mr Babayemi filed a notice of appeal before the Supreme Court.  

At the resumed hearing today, Adebayo Adelodun, counsel to the appellant informed the court that his client seeks to withdraw the earlier notice of appeal to replace it with a fresh application that has been filed.  

However, the panel held that it  lacked the jurisdiction to hear the suit since it was filed out of time. 

The panel held that Section 285(11) of the constitution stipulates that an appeal on a pre-election matter must be filed within 14 days from the day of the decision, and that having filed the second appeal out of time, the apex court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter. 

 Consequently Mr. Babayemi’s appeal was dismissed by the apex court.  

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