Ogun State’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday had its elected candidates reinstated by the Appeal Court in Ibadan.
These individuals are products of party primaries overseen by the National Working Committee (NWC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including the duly elected gubernatorial candidate, Honorable Oladipupo Adebutu, as well as the three senatorial candidates, nine representatives, and twenty-six assembly members.
On September 27, Justice O O Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, nullified the primary, resulting in Adebutu and others ordering new primaries to be held within 14 days.
The PDP, represented by counsel, filed an appeal with the Appellate Court, arguing that the ruling should be overturned.
Also affected by the lower court’s decision, Adebutu has appealed Justice Oguntoyinbo’s ruling in case number CA/IB/411/411A/2022.
Since the party’s NWC ran the primaries that elected Adebutu, Justice Nimpar Yargata, delivering judgement in the appeal in Ibadan, ruled that the trial court erred in its decision to overturn them.
Yargata said that Taiwo Olabode Idris and the other plaintiffs in the lower court case were not aspirants of the party and, as such, lacked standing to appeal the results of the primaries.
She argued that the section in the Electoral Act of 2022 stating that only aspirants can dispute the outcome of primary elections had superseded the court’s ruling in APC against Umar, upon which the respondents relied significantly in their pleadings before the court.
According to Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution, only the NWC of the party has the authority to conduct primaries, not the State Working Committee.
Since the problem of the primary was not a human rights matter, the judge ruled that the respondents’ requested relief of a proclamation to proclaim Mr Jimi Lawal as the guber candidate was inconsistent with the law.
Defending Adebutu’s appeal, she argued the trial court “went on a frolic on its own” by nullifying his primaries.
Justice Yargata vacated the Federal High Court’s decision and all of its orders after ruling in favour of Adebutu on all counts.
Justice Folasade Ojo had previously referred to the parallel primaries (conducted by Seriki and others) that purportedly produced any other guber candidate other than Adebutu and other candidates as “an unlawful gathering” in three similar earlier judgments of the same court in the appeals by the PDP and the cross-appeals by the respondents in the suit filed at the lower court by Prince Segun Seriki against the PDP.
After Justice Oguntoyinbo “descended into the area” by ordering new primaries in the party within 14 days, Justice Ojo cautioned that the court should not be used to aid illegality.
The appeals were granted, and the Federal High Court’s decision was vacated because the lower court judge had made an “incurably bad” judgement, according to the judge.
Adebutu and the PDP are now free to take their places among the other lawfully elected candidates after all five appeals stemming from the September 27 judgement were decided in their favour.
One of the appellant’s lawyers, Muyiwa Obanewa, commented on the Appellate Court’s rulings, saying that the various verdicts were properly weighed and that Adebutu and the others may now continue their election campaigns.