Osun Election: Oyetola fights back over court’s nullification of candidature

Chief Press Secretary to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, Ismail Omipidan, has appealed to supporters of his principal to remain calm in the face of the decision of a Federal High Court to nullify his candidature in the July 16 governorship poll.

Omipidan noted that Oyetola’s team of lawyers would be challenging the decision at the Appeal Court, just as he expressed confidence that the decision would be set aside.

He noted that the case was instituted by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in spite of the fact there are decisions flowing from the apex court that frown upon such a decision.

The spokesman said that, for the records, the position of the law is that only members of the APC who participated in the primary election can approach the court to challenge the nomination of Oyetola as the candidate of the party.

“All these are part of the antics of the opposition PDP and some of their collaborators from within to distract us. But like every one of their plans, this too has fallen flat on their faces”, Omipidan stated.

“They want to distract us from the Tribunal case. But we shall remain focused until we take back our mandate. We have confidence in the Tribunal to do justice in the case before it, just as we have implicit confidence in the Appeal Court to set aside this latest decision of the Federal High Court.”

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had, on Friday, nullified the nomination of  Oyetola and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, as the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s a candidate in the July 16, 2022 governorship election on the grounds that Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe, who submitted their names to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), violated the provisions of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 82 (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

Prior to the judgement the PDP, had through its counsel, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, challenged the nomination and sponsorship of Oyetola and his deputy as candidates of the APC for the governorship election.

In his judgement, Justice Nwite agreed with the submissions of the PDP’s counsel that  the suit commenced in line with the provisions of  Section 285(14) (C) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He therefore declared as null and void the nomination of Oyetola and Alabi by the APC.