The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to reinstate the nullification of former governor Gboyega Oyetola and his deputy Benedict Alabi’s participation in the 16 July 2022 governorship election.
On Thursday, a five-member panel of the supreme court led by Justice Chima Centus Nweze ruled that the PDP’s appeal lacked substance and ordered the PDP’s attorney, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, to withdraw it.
The court ruled that the PDP could not, under the law, challenge the procedure that led to Oyetola and Alabi’s election as candidates for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a ruling dated September 30, 2022, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja invalidated the participation of Oyetola and Alabi in the governorship election on the grounds that their nomination forms were endorsed by Mai Mala Buni, the acting chairman of the APC and the current governor of Yobe State.
In December of last year, the Court of Appeal in Abuja overturned Justice Nwite’s ruling, a result that the PDP appealed to the Supreme Court.
