Supreme Court affirms ex-deputy governor as PDP senatorial candidate in Ondo

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed Agboola Ajayi, a former deputy governor of Ondo State, as the validly nominated senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Ondo South District.

The apex court stated this while dismissing an appeal filed by the incumbent senator, Nicholas Tofowomo.

In a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on the grounds that the case was statute-barred and that the cause of action had been overtaken by events.

The Appeal Court had earlier validated the nomination of Mr Ajayi in concurrence with the judgement of the Federal High Court in Akure.

The legal contest began after Mr Ajayi was declared as the winner of the primaries of the PDP in the district.

In the keenly contested poll, Mr Tofowomo scored 74 votes while Mr Ajayi polled 78 votes.

But in his petition, Mr Tofomowo said Mr Ajayi was ineligible to stand in the election due to issues with his academic qualifications.

However, the Federal High Court did not consider the merit of the case because it agreed that it was filed outside the time allowed.

The Court of Appeal also held that the case was statute-barred having been filed 23 days after the alleged occurrence of the act, and thus 13 or 10 days after the expiration of the constitutional allowance of 14 days.

The Supreme Court on Friday sealed Mr Tofowomo’s fate by also dismissing his appeal with a fine of N500,000.

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Mr Ajayi had rejoined the PDP after losing a governorship bid as the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party in the 2020 gubernatorial election in the state.

He was the deputy governor in Governor Ritimi Akeredolu’s first term between 2016 and 2020 before defecting to the PDP and subsequently to the ZLP where he contested against his erstwhile principal in the 2020 governorship election but came a distant third.