The Court of Appeal in Abuja has disqualified Olusola Ebiseni as the Labour Party’s candidate for the upcoming Ondo State governorship election scheduled for November 16, 2024.
In a unanimous ruling delivered on Wednesday, a three-member panel of justices, led by Justice Hamma Barka and Justice Adebukola Banjoko, upheld the appeal filed by the Labour Party, effectively invalidating Ebiseni’s candidacy.
The appeal, marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024, challenged the earlier ruling by the Federal High Court, which had recognized Ebiseni as the Labour Party’s official candidate for the election.
The appellate court’s decision overruled the Federal High Court’s judgment, delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite, which had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish Ebiseni and his running mate, Ezekiel Awude, as the party’s nominees.
Justice Banjoko, who delivered the lead judgment, stated that the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court’s ruling would be provided to the parties for further review.
Justice Abba Mohammed, in his contribution, also agreed with the majority decision.
This development follows a legal dispute over the Labour Party’s internal primary election process. In the suit filed by Ebiseni and Awude, Justice Nwite had previously affirmed that the second primary election conducted by the Labour Party, which produced the duo as its candidates, was valid.
The court had noted that Ebiseni had paid N20 million for the nomination form and N5 million as compensation to Festus Olorunfemi, who had withdrawn from the race to make way for Ebiseni.
Despite the Federal High Court’s ruling in favour of Ebiseni, the Court of Appeal’s decision on Wednesday overturns that judgment, disqualifying him from running as the Labour Party’s candidate in the November election.
