Supreme Court Clears Oyebanji As APC Candidate For Ekiti Governorship Election

The Supreme Court has affirmed the candidacy of Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the June 20 governorship election, bringing an end to the legal battle over his nomination.

According to Ireporter Online, the apex court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by Mrs Abimbola Olawumi, an APC aspirant who had challenged Oyebanji’s emergence as the party’s flag bearer.

A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Mohammed Idris, unanimously ruled that the appeal lacked merit and upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, which had validated Oyebanji’s nomination.

Olawumi had approached the court, alleging that she was unlawfully prevented from participating in the APC nomination process and seeking the cancellation of the primary election outcome that produced Oyebanji as the party’s candidate.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Idris ruled that several applications filed by the appellant were incompetent due to procedural issues, including an unsigned written address and excessive pagination beyond the limit allowed under the Supreme Court Rules.

The court consequently struck out the affected applications and ruled that some grounds of appeal were invalid because they did not originate from the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

The Supreme Court also upheld the decision of the appellate court, which had rejected Olawumi’s appeal after finding her legal submissions incompetent. The court further declined to exercise its powers to hear the substantive matter, noting that the constitutional timeframe for resolving pre-election disputes had already elapsed.

With the judgment, the legal challenge against Oyebanji’s APC nomination has been brought to a close, confirming his position as the party’s candidate for the Ekiti governorship election.

Oyebanji had earlier been declared winner of the 2026 Ekiti governorship election after securing 319,224 votes, defeating other candidates in the contest.