Appeal Court dismisses High court ruling on Adeleke’s disqualification

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday set aside the ruling by a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court that disqualified Ademola Adeleke as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State over alleged certificate forgery.

Justice Othman Musa of the High Court had on April 2, 2019 ruled that Adeleke did not possess the educational qualification and not eligible to contest the election.

But a three-man panel of the court, held in a unanimous judgment on Thursday, that the FCT High Court was wrong to have concluded that Adeleke did not complete Secondary School and that he made false representation as regards his educational qualification.

Read also: NBA warns Buhari, Govs against trying to influence election tribunal judges

Reading the lead judgement on Thursday, Justice Emmanuel Agim, condemned the High court’s stance on the suit filed by the plaintiffs, Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb, saying the case was filed outside the 14 days prescribed for pre-election cases by the Constitution.

The Court held that the case was statute barred while the plaintiffs failed to comply with Section 285 of the Constitution in the filing of the case.

It also faulted the trial judge for failing to deliver its judgment within 80 days.

The court also ruled that a cost of N3million be awarded in favour of Adeleke, to be paid by the plaintiffs at the trial court.

By Babatunde Alao…

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