Nigeria Content Online

The Court of Appeal
in Ibadan, on Wednesday, fixed April 19 for its ruling on an
application filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a case that
will determine who is the governorship candidate of the party in the
state.

A former Minister
of Power and Steel, Wole Oyelese, Yekinni Adeojo, and a former deputy
governor of the state, Hazeem Gbolarunmi along with 38 others, had
challenged the selection of the state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala and
others as candidates of the party in the ongoing general election.

They based their
objection on the allegation that the candidates were not properly
selected and so should not be allowed to fly the flags of the party
during the election.

The plaintiffs
prayed the court to restrain the party from presenting the names of the
candidates to the electoral body and also sought the order of court to
restrain the body from receiving the names.

Justice Jonathan
Shakarho of the Federal High Court granted the order, but later vacated
it. The vacation has also being challenged at the appeal court.

Now at the appellate court, the PDP filed an application, seeking a relief of the court to amend the records of the lower court.

Lateef Fagbemi,
lead counsel to the party, told the court on Wednesday that the record
provided by the lower court on what transpired during the proceedings
was incomplete, adding that the appeal could not be based on important
omission in the record.

Time for reckoning

He made reference
to an affidavit deposed to by Humphrey Orlu, the Director of Litigation
of the lower court, on behalf of Mr Shakharo where he said the judge
only recorded the arguments he considered relevant to the case while
the case lasted.

Mr Fagbemi faulted
the decision of the judge to consider his application for discharge of
the interim injunction relevant but not to add it in his record.

Consequently, he sought the relief of the court to use his own record to complement to the one provided by the lower court.

The governor’s lead
counsel, Richard Akinjide, aligned with Mr Fagbemi’s submission and
asked the court to grant the application.

In his submission,
however, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, lead counsel to the aggrieved PDP
members, said Mr Fagbemi was no longer a party to the appeal since his
notice of discontinuance had been filed and allowed in the lower court.

He noted that it is
not possible to have all things that transpired in court recorded by a
judge, saying the court was right to record only the relevant
submissions.

“The judge does not
also have to record argument or submission of a counsel that is no
longer a party to the case by virtue of Order 50, Rule 2,” he said.

Mr. Akeredolu said the supplementary record provided by Mr, Fagbemi could not be taken to mean a true record of the court.

The presiding justices – Stanley Alagoa, Sidi Bage and Joseph Ikyegh – adjourned till Tuesday to give their ruling.