30th May, 2019
Court also orders plaintiffs to pay N3m to Adeleke
Senator Ademola Adeleke was qualified to contest last year’s governorship election in Osun State, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ruled today.
The court overturned the judgment on 2 April by Justice Othman Musa of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Bwari, which voided Adeleke’s candidacy for Osun election.
Justice Musa said the senator was not qualified having not possessed valid secondary school certificate.
In a unanimous judgment on Thursday, a three-man panel of the Appeal Court ruled that the FCT High Court was wrong to have concluded that Adeleke did not complete secondary education and that he made false representation as regards his educational qualification.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, in the lead judgment, 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 plaintiffs, 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.
The court also ordered the two plaintiffs to pay Adeleke N3million as costs.