Ekiti 2026: Supreme Court affirms Oyebanji’s candidacy

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, upholding the nomination of Governor Abiodun Oyebanji as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the June 20, 2026 governorship election in Ekiti State.

Justice Mohammed Idris delivered the lead judgment in an appeal filed by an aggrieved governorship aspirant of the APC, Abimbola Olawumi.

The court upheld the objections raised against the competence of some applications filed by the appellant to regularise her notice of appeal and the appellant’s brief of arguments.

The unanimous judgment by a five-member panel of the apex court held that the appeal was unmeritorious and proceeded to dismiss it.

He faulted the competence of the appeal filed by Olawumi and concluded that the reliefs she sought could not be granted.

The judge held that the written address accompanying the application was not signed and that its pagination also exceeded the number allowed under Order 4 Rule 1 of the Supreme Court’s Rules.

The court noted that grounds one, two, and three of the appeal were incompetent having not emanated from the decision of the lower court.

The judge also held that since the three grounds were incompetent, the issues distilled from the suit were also incompetent and are liable to be struck out.

Idris held that since the three grounds were incompetent, the issues distilled from them were also incompetent and are liable to be struck out.

He ruled: “In determining the surviving grounds four, five and six and issues three and four distilled from them, the lower court was not in error when it held that Olawumi’s suit was incompetent despite a pending application to regularise it.

“The lower court could not have invoked its powers under Section 15 of its Act to hear the substantive originating summons having affirmed the finding of the Federal High Court that the suit was statute barred.

“The supreme court cannot also invoke its power under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear the substantive originating summons as sought by the appellant because the 180 days provided in the Constitution for the determination of pre-election cases has lapsed.”

Olawumi had, among others, queried the process leading to Oyebanji’s nomination and prayed the court to void the outcome of the APC’s governorship primary on the grounds that she was allegedly prevented from participating as an aspirant.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖