Ondo Poll: S/Court Rules Out Jimoh Ibrahim's Requests

For the second time in a week, the Supreme Court has struck out the appli­cations challenging the ruling of the Court of Appeal which allowed the Peoples’ Demo­cratic Party (PDP) governor­ship candidate for Ondo State, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), to appeal the October 14, 2016 judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The Lower Court had or­dered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace Jegede’s name with that of Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP governorship candidate for tomorrow’s election.

But the Acting Chief Jus­tice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Nkanu Onnoghen, in an unanimous ruling delivered by a pan­el of the apex court on Thurs­day, struck out Jimoh Ibrahim’s 14 motions on the account that they have been overtaken by events.
The CJN held that the inter­locutory requests had become academic, owing to the fact that the Court of Appeal had deliv­ered judgment on the matter.
The apex court directed the appellants to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Ap­peal on Wednesday by the Jus­tice Ibrahim Saulawa-led three-member panel of Justices.
The apex court said that there was no point hearing the motions in piecemeals when a final judgment had been deliv­ered by the appellate court.
The Court of Appeal had two weeks ago granted permis­sion to Jegede to appeal against the ruling of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja, delivered on October 14, in which the judge ordered INEC to accept the name of Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP candidate for the election, having emerged from the Sen­ator Ali Modu Sheriff’s faction of the party.
The Appeal Court has al­ready granted a similar permis­sion to the Senator Ahmed Mo­hammed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the PDP to challenge the Federal High Court’s ruling that the faction has no legal right to nominate a candidate for the Ondo poll.