Court Of Appeal Rules That Senator Adeleke Is Qualified To Contest Osun Governor Election

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has set aside the April 2, 2019 judgement of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Bwari, which earlier voided Senator Ademola Adeleke’s candidacy for the 2018 governorship election in Osun State.

Justice Othman Musaon of the High Court had voided Adeleke’s candidacy on the grounds that he was not qualified.

The lawmaker was said to have been in possession of an invalid secondary school certificate.

However, 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.

The lead judge, Justice Emmanuel Agim, faulted the trial court for assuming jurisdiction over the case filed by Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb outside the 14 days prescribed for pre-election cases by the constitution.

Justice Agim, said the case was statute barred, the plaintiff, having not complied with Section 285 of the Constitution in the filing of the case and the trial judge, having failed to deliver its judgment within 80 days.

He awarded cost of N3million in favour of Adeleke, to be paid by Raheem and Habeeb, who were plaintiffs at the trial court.