Appeal Court did not affirm Adeleke’s eligibility – Counsel

A counsel to the respondents in appeal suit decided by a Court of Appeal sitting in Akure last Saturday, Barrister Olufemi Ayandokun, Monday debunked that the court did not affirm Ademola Adekele’s eligibility to contest Osun State governorship election.

“The Court of Appeal made no such pronouncement,” Ayandokun said in a statement.

“The Appeal bordered on whether the Federal High Court sitting at Osogbo was right to have dismissed the preliminary objection raised by Sen. Nurudeen Adeleke in the suit challenging his eligibility,” he added.

Nathaniel Oke, SAN, counsel to Adeleke, had on Saturday in a statement said the “Akure Federal Court of Appeal has by 11 AM today reaffirmed his qualification and eligibility to contest the office.”

“The Akure Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against the judgement of Osogbo High court which had confirmed the eligibility of Senator Ademola Adeleke to contest for the governorship of Osun state,” Oke said.

Ayandokun, however, said Oke’s statement is “mischevious misrepresentation.”

There has been lingering issue bordered on the controversy over Adeleke’s eligibility to contest in the Osun State governorship September 22 election.

The plaintiffs, Awosiyan Olalekan, Ojetade Thomas and Awodire Sina approached an Osun State high court, seeking Adeleke’s disqualification from the September 22 governorship election because he allegedly submitted fake certificates to get the People’s Democratic Party ticket for the poll.

They also claimed in an originating summons dated October 30th, 2018, filed by their counsel, Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, that Adeleke should be substituted with Akin Ogunbiyi, who came second in the PDP governorship primary.

Adeleke, however, filed a preliminary objection against the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case.

In its sitting on Saturday the appeal court’s three-member panel of M.A. Danjuma (presiding); R.M. Abdullahi, and P.A. Mahmoud, decided on the preliminary objection which was overruled by the trial court.

According to Ayandokun, “the substantive suit pending at the Federal High Court was not heard at all.”

“The 1st-3rd Respondents urge on all and sundry to disregard the gross, wanton and deliberate distortion and misrepresentation of the views of the Noble Bench of The Court of Appeal, Akure as expressed in the said Judgment,” he added.