Nigeria’s Court Of Appeal Sacks Ondo Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Olusola Ebiseni

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has sacked the Ondo State Labour Party’s candidate for Saturday’s governorship election,

Ebiseni was sacked by a three-member panel of justices, in a unanimous lead judgment read by Justice Adebukola Banjoko.

The judges ruled in favor of the appeal filed by the Labour Party.

The appeal, marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024, was brought against Ebiseni and two other parties, and the court declared the appeal “allowed.”

Justice Banjoko also noted that the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment would be provided to the involved parties for their review at the earliest opportunity.

Justice Abba Mohammed, in his own contributory judgment, concurred with the ruling of the other justices.

The ruling overturned a previous judgment by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognize Olusola Ebiseni and Ezekiel Awude as the Labour Party’s candidates for the governorship and deputy governorship positions in the 16 November election.

Justice Nwite had ruled that the second primary election conducted by the Labour Party, which led to Ebiseni and Awude’s emergence as candidates, was valid and should be upheld by INEC.

In his judgment on the suit filed by Ebiseni and Awude (marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1105/2024), Justice Nwite referenced evidence that Ebiseni had paid N20 million for the nomination form and was issued the form, which facilitated the second primary election.

Additionally, he noted that the Labour Party had directed Ebiseni to pay N5 million to Festus Olorunfemi as compensation for his withdrawal from the race.

Following this, Justice Nwite had ordered INEC to accept and publish Ebiseni and Awude’s names as the Labour Party’s lawful candidates.

Reacting to the judgment, Dame Olabisi Adu Okunniyi, Deputy Governorship Candidate of the party hailed the Appeal Court for the judgment, saying that the Labour Party and real ‘Obi-dients’ are set for Saturday’s election.

Okunniyi urged all Indigenes of the state to troop out to vote to bring about a new Ondo State.

In a statement issued by her media office, Okunniyi said the judgment is a victory for the rule of law and all true Obi-dients, who infused positive energy into the Labour Party pre-2023 general elections, “owing that impostors and political marauders will not be allowed to pervert and circumvent the course of the historical struggle of founders of the 3rd Force Obi-dient Movement in Nigeria”.

Okunniyi said, “The Labour Party government in Ondo State shall be inclusive, transparent, accountable and consultative, as every policy decision of our government shall be embraced from a bottom-up approach in ensuring that the Ondo people truly own their government and elected government officials are true servants leaders to marshal the mass prosperity of the Ondo people.”