How Oyebanji’s Legal Team Boxed Opposition Into A Corner At The Pre-election Court Battle

BY AHMED LAWAL

As an observer who has been following up the legal fireworks between the legal team of Mr. Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji and those of his challengers as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti, the more I think of the procedural flaw of the latter, the more I resign to fate that indeed God is with Oyebanji. 

First, it was the suit filed by Ms. Abimbola Olajumoke Olawumi, which was filed on 21/10/2025, wherein she claims that presented four questions for the courts determination and level relieves. Whereas the only authentic candidate of APC is Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, it was surprising that Abimbola’s legal team forgot or failed to join BAO. Meanwhile, under the law, once a necessary party to a suit is not joined, the case becomes incompetent, and the court will have no jurisdiction over the case.

Later, Abimbola changed her legal team and brought in Ogunleye SAN, and pronto, the SAN filed an application to join BAO as a necessary party to the suit in order to properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court. Thus, when the matter came up on 13/2/26, Counsel to Abimbola sought to move an application for substituted service on BAO in her motion for joinder and other processes. At that point, the court told the team emphatically that the procedure adopted was wrong and the following convesation ensued:

Judge: Learned Counsel, I am looking at this application. Do you think it’s a proper procedure?

Counsel: Yes, my lord.

The judge looked bewildered and suddenly dropped his pen and asked. “Counsel, if you say this procedure is proper, please address me. I want to learn a new jurisprudence from you. You mean you want to join someone to your suit, and you are filing motion on Notice to seek his opinion? This is strange. Besides, you want to seek an order for substituted service on a party that is yet to be joined. Address me, I want to learn.”  

At that point, the lawyer took an adjournment. When the matter resumed at the next adjourned date, the court asked them to serve their processes on everyone they wish to join so that the court will deliver a composite ruling on the propriety or otherwise of the joinder because it’s the contention of BAO’s legal team that BAO can no longer be joined. The reason is that under the law, a party becomes a party on the day he is joined.

In other words, BAO became a party on 20/02/2026 when the order was made. The effect of this in law is that BAO can not be joined because, under the law, a pre-election case can only be filed within 14 days. But as of 20/2/2026 when BAO was joined, it was well over four months. Meaning that the case was already statute barred against BAO and without BAO, the case is dead based on the principle of fair hearing that can simply be explained as you cannot shave a man’s head in his absence.

In other words, it is legally impossible to cancel BAO’s candidature without him being a party to the suit. So once BAO’s name is struck out, Abimbola’s case fails.

On 30th March, which was the day of the final hearing, Abimbola’s team was led by Ogunleye SAN, while Mr Ajibola Bashir held sway for the APC. BAO legal team comprises another consortium of lawyers, namely: Tunji Oso SAN, Kabir Akingbolu Esq, Umar Esq, Mrs. Tamunotonye Ekudayo and one other lawyer I can not readily remember his name at the time of filing this report. It was a fierce battle, and the team demonstrated to the court in no uncertain terms that the suit is incompetent and constitutes an abuse of the court process. After a fierce battle amongst the various lawyers, the court reserved judgement in Ajibola’s suit to 14th April 2026.

On the other hand, the case of Omotosho and his other cronies who are fighting for Kayode Ojo is not any better than that of Abimbola. The lawyer who stood for them is one Mr. Ojaomo. He appeared alone. Mr Bashir stood in for himself as the party’s secretary, one Mr Kankie, a life Bencher, stood for APC, Mr Love for APC Chairman and a Human Right Activist, Kabir Akingbolu Esq leading one Tamunotonye Ekundayo for Oyebanji. At the last adjourned date, the court had queried the application of the Plaintiffs’ lawyer that his application for a joinder of additional 14 people to the case as Plaintiffs is not the same as an amendment. Whereas the court granted joinder to them but they sought to amend their processes without any order of court.

At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Senator Bashir and BAO’s lawyers pinpointed to the court that the new 14 parties just added to the suit can no longer join as parties because it tantamounts to giving them order to file a suit to challenge the candidature of BAO after several months. The question the BAO team is asking is whether a suit can be filed to challenge a primary after several months of the primary and if the answer is no, then, the new parties can not be joined. But for the sake of time to save the cases which expire on 17th and 21st of this month the Court decided to take the case together with all the applications and said he will deliver a composite ruling and judgment on 14th and 16th respectively.

At the resumed hearing on Tuesday, it was exciting as well as fun, the way the APC and BAO’s team marshal their points. They first dealt with their arguments on the Preliminary Objections to the competence of the suit on various deadly grounds. According to Mr. Kankie, this case is not a pre-election but pre-primary election because it was filed before the primaries.

Senator Bashir maintained that the Court had no power to decide the matter because it was an internal affairs of the party which party has the unfettered right to chose anyone it pleases as its candidate and in that way, it has sponsored BAO. BAO’s lawyers maintained that all the Plaintiffs have no locus standi, that is the right to file the action because Kayode Ojo on behalf of whom they filed is not complaining at all let alone file any suit.

They maintained further that Kayode Ojo can not sue by proxy or representative action under the law. However, all the lawyers agreed and argued that under Section 84(14) of the electoral act, only an aspirant can challenge BAO’s primary.

They contested further that the Plaintiffs are not only unqualified to file the suit on the ground that they are not aspirants nor Mr. Kayode Ojo, but also they are not members of the party. Again, the lawyers argued that a pre-election case challenges a pre-election but that the case of the Plaintiffs complained of the party’s adoption of consensus candidature. But when both of them realised the futility of their cases, they changed their cases to the challenge of the primary. The argument of lawyers is that the cases are speculative, academic, and anticipatory.

This position was held because while the adoption of BAO was done on 27th October 2025, the disgruntled politicians filed their cases before 27th. One filed on 21/10/2025 the other filed on 24/10/2025.

During the hearing, the court refused to allow INEC to make oral submissions on the ground that INEC can not be partisan but stay neutral.

During the hearing, BAO’s legal team and APC team light up the courtroom with lots of jabs or teasing joke that showed them to likely had a vocation in Nollywood after being masters in their trade. The first salvo was fired by Senator Bashiru who doubles as the APC National Secretary when he taunted the Plaintiffs’ lawyer Mr Ojaomo if he can consider joining his party APC so he will be able to reason differently. But Mr Ojaomo flared up, rejecting it as a Greek gift. Mr Ojaomo further expressed his hatred for politics, and the judge joined the fun making by saying may be Mr. Ojaomo may still change his mind tomorrow. Not done yet, BAO’S lawyer threw another jab when in their submission, they stated that the Plaintiffs are nobody. The judge asked them what they meant by calling human beings nobody and at that point, Mr. Ojaomo said he was about to object to the statement and they submitted that what they meant was that as far as the case is concerned, the Plaintiffs are nobody because they are neither members of the APC nor aspirants who participated in the primaries therefore, they cannot file any case under Section 84 (14 ) of the Electoral Act, which gives power or right to challenge a primary election to only aspirants. Mr Ojaomo wanted to make issues out of it and BAO’s team teased him not to be alarmed as the day of judgment was near.

The question to now ask is that, although the Plaintiffs in both cases have realised their terrible plights and abandoned their original claims by now saying that the sponsorship of BAO is not legal, it is elementary and common sense that it is not possible for Abimbola who filed her case on 21st October 2025 to challenge the primary or adoption of BAO done on 27th October 2025. Same for Omotosho and his cohorts. They can only win if they can prove that they know the outcome of the primary or adoption of October 27th from 21st October or 24th in the respective case. In any case, 14th and 16th is almost here.

-Lawal is the Ekiti State Co-ordinator of APC Fans Club