Ogun PDP governorship crisis: Appeal Court delivers verdict today in Adebutu/Kashamu suit

Senator Buruji Kashamu and Oladipupo Adebutu will today know their fate over their claims to the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State.

The Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division, will deliver its judgment on the matter today.

Justice Abubakar Shittu of a Federal High Court in Ogun State, in October, directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept a list of candidates from the Adebayo Dayo-led faction of the party.

The faction is loyal to Kashamu, the senator representing Ogun East District and the governorship candidate of the faction.

The judgment came after Adebutu had been named the governorship candidate of the party.

Rather than surrender, the PDP, through its counsel, Emeka Etiaba (SAN), approached the appellate court in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The party sought an order to set aside the judgment on the ground of non-service on the PDP, the process upon which the orders were based, lack of fair hearing, Supreme Court judgment on PDP leadership tussle, among others.

The situation leaves the two politicians claiming to be the authentic candidates of the party while awaiting the decision of the appellate court.

At the hearing of the appeal yesterday before a three-man panel, Etiaba argued that the PDP was not served the processes upon which the orders were predicated and was consequently not given fair hearing in the matter brought before Justice Shittu by the Dayo-led faction.

On the leadership tussle in the party, Etiaba argued that the Supreme Court had laid the issue to rest.

The issue of bias against Justice Shittu included in the brief of appeal by the appellants’ counsel as one of the grounds of appeal, resulting from the lack of fair hearing ground, was later withdrawn by Etiaba on the advice of one of the three judges who heard the appeal.

Counsel to Dayo, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), prayed the appellate court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.

He argued that the court bailiff approached the office of the PDP National Secretary from where he was directed to the Legal Department of the party for service of the court processes.

Izinyon said the bailiff, as stated in his affidavit filed before the court, met some lawyers at the Legal Department who refused to accept service of the processes, claiming there was a holiday.

But the PDP lawyer counter-argued that the law is that an officer of the party not lower than a Secretary must be served such processes.

Izinyon said the argument should have been filed in an affidavit to controvert the bailiff’s claim.

After listening to both counsel, the presiding judge, Justice J. A. Bada, asked the parties to address the court on whether the matter was a pre-election case or not, based on the provisions of Section 285, Subsection 14 a-c of the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution.

Etiaba said it was not a pre-election matter as it did not fall within the category of cases classified as such.

But Izinyon said it was a pre-election matter and so remained statute-barred.

The lawyer urged the court to strike out certain paragraphs in the appellants’ brief.

Justice Bada fixed 3 p.m. today for judgment on the matter.