Appeal Court Disqualifies Ondo Governorship Candidate Few Days To Election
On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja disqualified Olusola Ebiseni as the Labour Party’s candidate for the upcoming Ondo State governorship election, scheduled for Saturday, 16 November 2024.
A three-member panel of justices, in a unanimous decision led by Justice Hamma Barka and delivered by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, ruled in favor of the appeal brought by the Labour Party.
The court stated that the appeal, marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024, was “allowed.”
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Justice Banjoko further noted that the Certified True Copy of the judgment would be provided to the parties involved for review as soon as possible.
Justice Abba Mohammed, in his contributory judgment, expressed agreement with the ruling of the other justices.
Earlier, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and recognize Olusola Ebiseni and Ezekiel Awude as the Labour Party’s candidates for governor and deputy governor, respectively, for the 16 November election.
Justice Nwite had affirmed the validity of the second primary election conducted by the Labour Party, which produced Ebiseni and Awude as candidates. He also directed INEC to uphold the outcome and publish their names as the party’s official nominees.
In his judgment on the case marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1105/2024, Justice Nwite noted that Ebiseni had paid N20 million for the nomination form and was issued the form for the second primary election. He further observed that the Labour Party had instructed Ebiseni to pay N5 million to one Festus Olorunfemi as compensation for his withdrawal from the governorship race.
Despite the Federal High Court’s ruling, the Court of Appeal overturned the judgment, disqualifying Ebiseni from the race.
