The Supreme Court has validated the judgement of the
Court of Appeal which earlier struck out a motion
challenging the educational qualifications of Osun State
politician, Ademola Adeleke.
The court in a decision on Thursday agreed with an earlier
ruling of the appeal court that the application was brought
‘outside of time’ at a High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory where a decision was made nullifying Mr
Adeleke’s candidacy in the Osun Governorship polls.
Mr Adeleke’s lawyer, Niyi Owolade, confirmed the
development in a telephone interview with newsmen on
Friday night.
According to the lawyer, the apex court agreed with the
Peoples Democratic Party and Mr Adeleke that the High
Court’s decision on the matter was a nullity.
Background
Following an application by two members of the All
Progressives Congress, Wahab Raheem and Adam
Habeeb, at a High Court of the FCT, the judge, Othman
Musa, decided that Mr Adeleke did not qualify to take part
in the governorship elections on the ground that he had
failed to obtain a secondary school degree.
Dissatisfied, Mr Adeleke approached the Court of Appeal
with a number of objections including the timing of the
matter at the lower court.
Mr Adeleke, through his lawyer, Mr Owolade, argued that
the case involved a pre-election matter and the APC
members approached the lower court rather late, making
it impossible for the high court to exercise jurisdiction on
the issue.
In a decision in May, the Court of Appeal agreed with the
PDP that the application involved a pre-election matter
which ought to have been filed within 14 days from the
date of the course of action.
The court said the failure of the applicants to bring their
request within the specified time made it impossible for
the High Court to exercise jurisdiction on the matter.
“The trial court was wrong to have dismissed the
applicant’s objection at the lower court. The issue of lack
of jurisdiction can be raised at any point even in an appeal
before this court or at the Supreme Court for the first time.
“Being a pre-election matter, it must be filed within 14
days, and the judgement delivered 180 days after the date
of filing. They filed their suit 43 days after the date the
form was submitted to the fourth respondent (INEC).
“The judgement was delivered 209 days after the date of
filing,” said the Court of Appeal in a judgement by its
three-member panel. The judgement was read by Emanuel
Agim.
The appellate court also said the documents presented at
the lower court indicated that Mr Adeleke sat for his
WAEC exams in 1981.
It added that the failure of Mr Adeleke to correct errors in
his result sheets before submitting the same to INEC
“could not be interpreted to suggest that Mr Adeleke
provided false documents to INEC$.
“Errors in a document do not amount to falsehood. What
the respondent did is to exploit the mistakes in his
submitted form to hold that he was not qualified.
“At the heart of the argument is that the trial court ignored
the documents brought by WAEC. It is clear from the
judgement of the trial court that it ignored the documents.
If it had not ignored the documents, it would have found
that the information suggesting that the applicant sat for
the May June 1981, exams were true and not false.
“The trial court disregarded the documents as if it never
existed. Even the documents it chose to consider, it did
not evaluate properly. The trial court appeared to have
ignored the fact that the principal appeared to testify if the
information submitted to the fourth respondent was true
or false. If the principal said that there were many errors in
the result sheet, he must be believed,” Mr Agim ruled.
Apparently aggrieved by the appellate court decision, the
two APC members appeared before the Supreme Court
for a further determination of the matter.
Explaining the judgement of the Supreme Court, Mr
Owolade said the apex court hinged its decision on the
timing of the application and the fact that Mr Adeleke’s
documents showed he partook in the 1981 WEAC exams.
“Two APC stalwarts left our territory and went to Bwari, a
suburb of Abuja, with their application against our clients
certification. On our part we said that it was a pre-election
matter. That the time for it to have been brought had
passed. So the application was statute bad.
“Ordinarily it should be thrown away but judgement was
delivered against us.
“But at the Court of Appeal, the judge Emanuel Agim gave
a brilliant judgment which considered all the nitty-gritty of
the case and he agreed with our submissions.
“We went to the court of appeal and the court of appeal
went further to declare cost against the APC of N3
million.
“Surprisingly, they decided to go to the supreme Court and
at the Supreme Court their case was dismissed. The
supreme Court said this is a pre-election matter which
was time bound,” said Mr Owolade.
Despite getting a favourable ruling on his educational
qualification, Mr Adeleke’s governorship ambition was
recently thwarted. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of
the All Progressives Congress and incumbent Governor
Gboyega Oyetola in Mr Adeleke’s suit challenging Mr
Oyetola’s electoral victory.



https://www.today.ng/news/politics/supreme-court-upholds-appeal-courts-ruling-senator-adelekes-qualifications-238570

Ogunbiyi and others that took him to court should bury their head in shame.

so he can contest d next election I'm peace abi? it's alright

Supreme Court Rules On Adeleke’s Application.

https://thenigerialawyer.com/supreme-court-rules-on-adelekes-application/

With this ruling he can contest peacefully in subsequent elections...

Supreme Court Rules On Adeleke’s Application- premiumtimes newspaper

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/343353-supreme-court-rules-on-adelekes-application.html

cc lalasticlala cc mynd44 cc OAM4J

Academic exercis

FeeDeeFee! Fawa to de Fiful!!!

I'm from this man's hometown, everyone here knows he's not a credible person. It's just that the peanuts he's giving them and the "omo wa ni" ideology is why they keep supporting him.

My father attended the same secondary school with the man. In fact his school mates are still many in town. It's a long story.

A lesson I learnt from this man's story
You don't know what might happen tomorrow, you might become more relevant than you ever dreamt of. So don't live today miserably and irresponsibly because you think there's no hope for you.

CHRISDMANAGER:
With this ruling he can contest peacefully in subsequent elections...

9jahotblog:
Ogunbiyi and others that took him to court should bury their head in shame.

Lazy youths. Always read beyond the headline.

Here is what the court says.

The court in a decision on Thursday agreed with an earlier
ruling of the appeal court that the application was brought
‘outside of time’ at a High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory where a decision was made nullifying Mr
Adeleke’s candidacy in the Osun Governorship polls.

He only escaped due to the timing of the suit.

This is what we called Campaign after election

Newnas:


I'm from this man's hometown, everyone here knows he's not a credible person. It's just that the peanuts he's giving them money and the "omo wa no" ideology is why they keep supporting him.

Provide evidence that he is not a "credible person" or you are just a pained and jealous zombie.

Xisnin:

Provide evidence that he is not a "credible person" or you are just a pained and jealous zombie.

cc justwise