Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has secured a major legal victory just days before the governorship election after the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld his nomination as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Thursday, a three-member panel of the appellate court dismissed an appeal filed by APC member, Mrs. Abimbola Olawumi, effectively ending another legal challenge to Oyebanji’s candidacy ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
The panel, headed by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, ruled that Olawumi’s appeal was incompetent because her brief of argument violated the Court of Appeal Rules by exceeding the prescribed page limit.
The court held that the defective filing rendered the appeal unsupported by valid legal arguments and consequently struck it out.
The appellate court also upheld the cross-appeal filed by Governor Oyebanji, ruling that the trial court erred when it held that Olawumi qualified as an aspirant within the meaning of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022.
According to the court, Olawumi failed to establish that she had the legal standing required to challenge the APC’s governorship primary, having been disqualified during the Party’s screening process before the primary election.
The dispute stemmed from the APC governorship primary conducted in October 2025, in which Oyebanji emerged as the Party’s flagbearer after the Party cleared him to contest while disqualifying Olawumi and another aspirant, Kayode Ojo, during the screening exercise. Following her disqualification, Olawumi approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging the Party’s decision and seeking to nullify Oyebanji’s emergence as the APC candidate.
Although the Federal High Court had earlier dismissed her suit, Olawumi proceeded to the Court of Appeal, insisting that the lower court wrongly handled her case and asking the appellate court to overturn the judgment.
Thursday’s judgment, however, brought the appeal to an end and effectively cleared the final legal hurdle standing in the way of Oyebanji’s participation in the June 20, 2026, governorship election.
The ruling also reinforces the long-standing legal principle that issues relating to the nomination of candidates by political parties are largely internal party affairs, except where there is a clear violation of constitutional or statutory provisions.
With the Court of Appeal’s decision, Oyebanji remains the APC’s validly nominated candidate as Ekiti voters prepare to head to the polls on Saturday.
