Oyetola, deputy wrong candidates for last Osun gov election­ – Court

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday evening nullified the nomination of Governor Isiaka Oyetola and his deputy governorship candidate, Benedict Alabi, as candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the last governorship election in Osun State.

The court said the judgment was on the grounds that the former APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mai Mala Buni, who submitted their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission, violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act 2022.

The Peoples Democratic Party through its counsel, Kehinde Ogunwumiju (SAN), had in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/468/2022, dragged Buni and four others before the court, challenging the nomination and sponsorship of Governor Oyetola and his deputy as the duly nominated candidates of the APC.

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In challenging the competence of the suit, counsel for Oyetola, Kunle Adegoke (SAN), who contended, among other grounds that the plaintiff did not have the locus to commence the action and that the suit was statute-barred.

In arguing to the contrary,  Ogunwumiju (SAN), leading O.M. Atoyebi (SAN) and Ademola Abimbola, submitted that the plaintiff rightly commenced the suit under Section 285(14) (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).