An English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, Alfred Austin warned us to the danger of half truth when he said “A half-truth is a whole lie.” This was exactly what I felt after reading a piece written by Adebayo Adedeji, in his desperate attempt to foist the wrong notion that the Appeal Court judgement of February 10, 2025, reinstated the court-sacked YES or NO officials.
Of a truth, the APC formulated four issues for the Appealate court to determine, but what Adedeji failed to highlight, although, it may be deliberate, was that those four issues were drawn from nine grounds of appeal that the APC submitted before the court. It is no longer a news that the Appeal Court in its judgement only resolved two of the issues while deeming the two remaining issues as mere “academic exercise.”
The Supreme Court in SC/VC/478/2021 held that “a case on appeal become academic when it would bring no benefit to any of the parties, or where there is no live issue in the claim. Also, in AG Plateau State V. AG Federation (2006) 3 NWLR (Pt. 967) 346 @ 419: Tobi, JSC (of blessed memory stated the law as follows: “A suit is academic where it is merely theoretical, makes empty sound and of no practical value to the plaintiff, even if judgement is given in his favour. A suit is academic if it is not related to practical situation of human nature and humanity.”
With this reality of the law put in perspective, the question to ask is, where exactly does the Osun APC draw its erroneous assumption that the court reinstated the sacked officials? Issue three formulated by the APC before the Court was founded on ground 6 of its appeal, which pleaded that “The learned trial Judge erred in law, with respect, when in granting the relief sought by the 1st Respondent, his lordship held that there was non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act hence the whole procedure followed by the 3rd Respondent for the conduct of the Osun State Local Government Election was a nullity.”
Issue four formulated by the APC at the Court of Appeal was based on grounds 7, 8 and 9, which goes thus: (7) “The learned trial Judge erred in law, with respect, when in making consequential order not sought for by the 1st Respondent, nullified the Local Government elections conducted by the 3rd Respondent on the 15th day of October, 2022 and directed all Local Government executives elected on the platform of the 1st Appellant and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Appellants to vacate offices. immediately.” (8) “The learned trial Judge erred in law by holding that the Local Government elections held in Osun State by the 3rd Respondent on the 15th day of October, 2022 into all the Local Government Councils in Osun State was illegal and unconstitutional.” (9) “The Ruling and Judgement of the Lower Court delivered on 15th September, 2022 and 25th November, 2022, respectively, were against the weight of Affidavit evidence placed before it.”
Two things are clear from the above, and that is the fact that contrary to the lies peddled by the APC, it was the court and not Governor Ademola Adeleke that sacked the YES or NO officials, and again, the two issues deemed “academic exercise”, which by several lines of judgements in the past is not capable of giving benefit to any parties, were actually on the legal questions of the nullified election.
It therefore beat every sense of reason for anyone to confer any legal rights on the sacked YES or NO, when in fact, the Court of Appeal, didn’t resolve questions on the validity of their elections, not to talk of making pronouncement on the legal standing. It get even worse when there is a subsisting judgement in the suit filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) that sacked the YES of NO officials and it is yet to be set aside.
No matter how hard Adedeji or his party try to avoid that judgement, it remains a force of law until set aside by a superior court. The APP suit marked FHC/OS/CS/103/2022 also challenged the legality of the October 15, 2022, election in a separate suit from that of the PDP and the court in a judgement on November, 30, 2022, nullified the election.
Although, the APC appealed that judgement just as it did with the one in the case of the PDP, it however abandoned it, prompting the Appeal Court on January 13, 2025, to dismiss the APC appeal for want of prosecution. That judgement affirmed the Federal High Court judgement, which nullified the October 15, 2022, election and the clear implication of this is that, no one can lay claim to a process that has been voided by a court of competent jurisdiction unless set aside by a superior court.
The law is settled as emphasized by the Supreme Court in NGERE & ANOR v. OKURUKET & ORS(2014) LPELR-22883(SC), that “…The judgment of a Court of competent jurisdiction subsists until upset on appeal. While the judgment subsists, every person affected by it or against whom an order is made must obey it even if it appears wrong. Judgments take effect immediately they are delivered and every Court has inherent power to proceed to enforce judgments at once. The enforcements on delivery can only be interrupted by a stay of execution provided there is an appeal.”
This is very straightforward but it appears that the Osun APC is not prepared to tow the path of law and order, doing almost everything to foist itself on Osun people. This is quite unfortunate and a brazen assault on Nigeria’s democracy, which brings back the horrible memories of the dark days of the military rule.
Democracy thrives when all actors are prepared to abide by the rules and adhere to rule of law, but unfortunately, the Osun APC is apparently lost to its desperation for power that it feel it can pick judgements based on what suits it just because it could easily manipulate federal machineries. As things stand now, and in the face of the law, the YES or NO officials remain sacked and instead of trying to subvert democracy through crude abuse of federal institutions, the APC should concentrate on its efforts to relist its dismissed appeal before the Court of Appeal and if unsuccessful, go before the Supreme Court to set the valid judgement that nullified the October 15, 2022 local government elections.
Sarafa Ibrahim writes from Osogbo, Osun State
