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The Osun State gubernatorial election is long concluded with the emergence of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the Governor-elect, however, one Prince Oyedotun Babayemi struggled and sought to redefine the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission through the court until he was permanently stopped by the apex court of the land, the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Prince Oyedotun Babayemi, who claimed to have won the PDP Gubernatorial ticket in a parallel primary election, had instituted the action challenging the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s primary election that produced Adeleke as the PDP candidate.
However, after the hearing of the matter at the trial court, the court found that Sen. Adeleke was duly elected as the PDP candidate and that the election that produced him was in accordance with the relevant laws of the land. Fortunately, the Court of Appeal affirmed the decision of the trial court but not satisfied nor accepting of these verdicts the Prince Dotun dragged the matter all the way to the apex court of the land.
At the Supreme Court, the Appellant (Prince Oyedotun Babayemi) had earlier filed a Notice of Appeal which was filed within time. However, perhaps in an attempt to amend the Notice of Appeal, the Appellant filed a new one and sought the leave of the court to withdraw and abandon the earlier one.
Unfortunately for Prince Oyedotun Babayemi, the amended Notice of Appeal was filed after the 14 days prescribed by Section 285(11) of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). Yet, a lot of energy, mobilisation, malice and publicity was given to the appeal at the Supreme court.
Section 285(11) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, (as amended) provides: “An appeal from a decision in a pre-election matter shall be filed within 14 days from the date of delivery of the judgment appealed against.” It is essential to note that election related matters are sui generis and are strictly time bound owing to the nature of interest and the effect of delay in concluding the process. Like the instant case, anyone who desires to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal must do so within 14 days from the date the decision was given.
Sadly, the Notice of Appeal filed by Prince Dotun’s lawyer greatly erred in law by virtue of an irreparable non compliance with the mandatory 14 days requirement within which an aggrieved person is expected to file an appeal.
At the resumed hearing at the Supreme Court, the respected learned silk realizing the fundamental blunder that has occurred passionately and emotionally persuaded the court to kindly oblige them an opportunity to proceed with the appeal, arguing in the interest of justice. He cited section 15 (2) (A) of the Interpretations Act and hosts of other authorities in appealing to the Supreme Court to entertain the appeal.
But in response, the Supreme Court being a court of justice and not of emotion reiterated that justice is not only for the Appellant but equally for all the parties involved and of course the people at large. They posited that a valid Notice of Appeal is what conferred jurisdiction on the court to hear and determine the matter without which anything done would be null and void ab-initio as the originating process is incompetent. The court maintained that the section of Interpretation Act cited by counsel to Oyedotun is not applicable in election related matter.
Brilliant counsel to Adeleke fired his shots, he submitted to the highly respected panel of justices that ordinarily the fundamental error by the learned silk who filed the invalid and incompetent Notice of Appeal knowing fully well that they are out of time, should have come with heavy cost. He however informed the court that unlike the Appellant, they are not vindictive. He spiritually and with a clean heart put forward that if the learned SAN honourably withdraws the Notice and end the matter, that Adeleke will not demand for ‘damages’ (cost) certainly, for wasting the time of the court unnecessarily. He threatened subtly that if they decided to continue with a lifeless case to the ‘irritaion” of the Governor-elect, yes his obvious and irredeemable voyage of no-discovery, the Adeleke legal team will be asking for a heavy penalty cost.
At that point, the learned silk who represented Prince Oyedotun having equally taken the hint of the court saw the end had come, and realized he must now rescue his client from any penalty. He was confronted with the dilemmas of two options; either to withdraw the incompetent Notice or face heavy cost sanction by the court should he decide to proceed.
The Counsel to Prince Oyedotun Babayemi (Appellant) reluctantly and with pains, withdrew the incompetent and invalid Notice of Appeal and same was dismissed by the apex court speedily.
It is imperative to state that what transpired in court as stated above espouse the business of law and justice. The Supreme Court acted in compliance with the provisions of extant laws relating to election matters in the best interest of justice. Suffice to say that while in today’s jurisprudence of ‘substantial justice’ the law is what the law is, which align with the truism that competence is the soul of adjudication. And as such the issue of competence can no longer in law truly be regarded as ‘mere technicality’ but rather be seen as substantial issue of law. The competence of the invalid Notice of Appeal which in turn goes to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court cannot therefore be said to be ‘mere technicality’, but rather a substantial issue of law, and its resolution has resulted to substantial justice of the matter. See the quite recent decision of the Court of Appeal in IWOK v. INYANG & ORS (2022) LPELR-58413(CA) Pp 37 – 39 Paras E – B.
It is also worthy to note that the happenstance was a great lesson for all litigants as it reminded us that the essence and end-goal of any dispute should be reconciliation and not malice. If you have opportunities to be heard and resolve dispute, don’t be vindictive or wicked, give peace a chance. For lawyers, due diligence and time is of essence in the legal profession and we are reminded of how grevious non-compliance may result in a painful end.
While I congratulate the Governor-elect Senator Ademola Adeleke on another victory at the Supreme Court which further reaffirms the mandate given to him by the good people of Osun State, I will advise Governor Oyetola to demonstrate he is an honourable Yoruba man now before it is too late, take the path of honour and kill the hatred in his heart. He must as a matter of alacrity and course congratulate the legally elected Governor of Osun State less a statue of shame be built in remembrance of his name at the entrance of Osun State.
Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq., is a Legal Practitioner and Managing Partner at Law Corridor, Abuja.
