Appeal Court Reserves Judgment In Akinlabi’s Appeal Against Abiodun
The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan on Monday reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) candidate in the March 9 governorship election in Ogun State, Mr. Adekunle Akinlabi, challenging the victory of Mr. Dapo Abiodun of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election Ogun
Akinlabi had appealed the September 4 judgment of the election petition tribunal which upheld Abiodun’s victory in the election. Other respondents in the appeal are the APC and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The five-man panel of the appeal court headed by Justice Abubakar Yahaya reserved judgment after listening to the argument of all the parties in the matter.
Justice Yahaya said that judgment date would be communicated to the parties’ counsels.
Earlier, the lead Counsel to the APM candidate, Mr. Sebastine Hon (SAN), said Abiodun submitted a false academic qualification to aid his qualification for the 2019 governorship election.
Hon contented that there was a difference between what he wrote in the form CFO submitted in 2015 to contest the Senatorial election and the one submitted in 2019 for the governorship election.
He said Abiodun was not qualified to contest the governorship election based on his false qualification and urged the court to uphold the appeal.
In his argument, Abiodun’s counsel, Mr. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), said his client was qualified to contest the governorship election.
Osipitan said the issue of academic qualification was a pre-election matter which ought to have been brought to court within 14 days after the document was submitted.
