Court Upholds Gboyega Adefarati Victory, INEC Presents Certificate Of Return

• INEC Upholds Gboyega Adefarati victory in the Ondo National Assembly election.

• The electoral commission marked it with the presentation of certificate of return to the politician at Abuja.

• This follows the decision of the Court of Appeal to uphold Adefarati’s election victory..

EKO HOT BLOG reports that Asiwaju Gboyega Adefarati, the winner of the February 25, 2023 National Assembly election for the Akoko South East/South West federal constituency in Ondo state, has received his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The certificate was presented to him by INEC National Commissioner, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, at the commission’s National Headquarters in Abuja.

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This development followed the decision of the Court of Appeal, which upheld Adefarati’s election victory. The appellate court declared him the valid candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the election, thereby nullifying an earlier judgement by a Federal High Court that had invalidated the party’s primary election that produced Adefarati as its flagbearer.

The lower court had declared that the APC had no candidate for the House of Representatives election in the federal constituency and restrained Adefarati and the party from parading himself as the flagbearer of the party in the election. Adefarati had then approached the Appeal court to challenge the decision of the lower court.

In a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Yusuf Bashir, the Appeal court held that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit because the originating summon was not properly signed, adding that the lower court ought not to have entertained the suit and therefore lacked jurisdiction and locus.

Adefarati had polled 25,872 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Gbenga Kolawole, who scored 18,403 votes.

However, INEC had delisted Adefarati’s name from the published list of House of Representatives members-elect after the election, citing the court order that invalidated the party’s primary.

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Reacting to the Appeal court verdict, Adefarati’s counsel, Chief Olusola Oke SAN, Alhali Kabir Ajana SAN, and Barrister Yinka Orokoto hailed the decision, describing it as a victory for justice and democracy.

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