THE hearing of the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Osun State in the September 2018 governorship election, Senator Ademola Adekele, was yesterday stalled in Court of Appeal, Abuja on account of improper service.
Adeleke has approached the appellate court to challenge the decision of Justice Othman Musa of the FCT High Court in Bwari, Abuja, on April 2, which invalidated his status as PDP governorship candidate.
Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb, both of the Osun Chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC) instituted the suit, accusing Adeleke of not possessing the requisite educational qualification.
At the resumed hearing, Mr Bankole Komolafe, counsel for Raheem and Habeeb, drew the attention of the court that four vital pages of the Notice of Appeal served on him were not included.
Komolafe also submitted that the development had prevented him to file his respondents’ brief.
Nathaniel Oke (SAN), counsel for Adeleke, earlier told the court that he had met all condition for preparatory for the definite hearing of the appeal.
Oke told the court that the four listed respondents were duly and promptly served with the Notice of Appeal on April 15.
He therefore, described the inability of the counsel to the first (Raheem) and second (Habeeb) respondents to file his client’s responses as a violation of the court’s practice direction which allowed them only five days to respond.
Komolafe subsequently countered Oke’s argument, saying that it was misleading for Oke to rest his submission on the court’s practice direction on a pre-election matter.
Read also: PDP raises alarm over Adeleke’s safety
Justice Stephen Adah, leading two other justices of the court upheld Komolafe’s argument and discountenance Oke’s line of thought.
The judge said: “If you have errors in your record, it is your responsibility to correct them. Why do you have to serve counsel with incomplete process and still go ahead to put the blame on them?
“This is not an election petition, so the practice direction where respondents are only given five days to respond to processes applied.
“In the circumstance, you must correct the record and give them time to respond. The matter is therefore adjourned until May 2 for hearing of the appeal,’’
The other respondents are APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The PDP national leadership has raised the alarm over the safety of Adeleke.
Its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, who stated this at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, accused certain “desperate elements” within the APC of plotting to use all means to put Adeleke out of circulation.
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