Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
An Appeal Court sitting in Abuja has ruled that Mr Eyitayo Jegede be recognised as the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Saturday, November 26, 2016 governorship election in Ondo State.
With the ruling, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim has been disqualified from contesting in the poll this weekend.
In an unanimous judgment on Wednesday, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa upturned the June 29 judgement of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Mr Ibrahim as PDP candidate for the exercise.
In his ruling, Justice Saulawa, who led the three-man Special Panel of the appeal court held that the decision of the high court was in total breach of the provision of section 36 of the 1999 constitution, which it said forbade any court from denying fair hearing to a party likely to be affected by final decision of the court.
Justice Saulawa also said the action of the lower court violated the legal doctrine of audi altarem partem, stressing that, “The tenets of natural Justice entails that a party ought to be heard prior to determination of case against them.”
It would be recalled that Mr Jegede had approached the court to challenge the high court verdict which ordered INEC to only relate with the Ali Modu-Sheriff faction of the PDP.
Justice Abang had on October 14, also re-affirmed his decision, even as he warned the electoral body against accepting any candidate nominated by the Senator Ahmed Markafi-led National Caretaker Committee of the PDP.
Acting on the strength of the order, INEC, promptly removed Mr Jegede’s name from the final list of candidates for the Ondo gubernatorial poll, and replaced it with Mr Ibrahim.
