Adefarati Receives Certificate Of Return From INEC

Asiwaju Gboyega Adefarati, who was elected to the House of Representatives for the Akoko South East/South West federal constituency, has received a Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Prof. Kunle Ajayi, National Commissioner for INEC, gave it to him at the commission’s Abuja National Headquarters.

This came after the Court of Appeal’s ruling confirming his election. The election for the National Assembly was won by Adefarati on February 25.
Recall that Adegboyega Adefarati was recently approved as the party’s nominee for the House of Representatives by the Court of Appeal, which has its headquarters in Akure, the capital of Ondo State.

Adefarati was confirmed by the party’s candidate in an unanimous judgement by the Appellant Court, saying the lower court erred in nullifying the primary of the APC which declared Adefarati as the winner.

The son of the late governor of the state, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, was declared as the candidate of the APC for the Akoko South West and Akoko South East federal constituencies in Ondo state by the party but a Federal High Court nullified his candidacy in the election.

The lower Court which nullified the primary conducted by the party, declared that the party has no candidate for the 2023 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 approached the Appeal court to challenge the decision of the lower court and contested the February 25th, 2023 election where the party was declared the winner.

The Appeal court, in a unanimous judgement, delivered by Justice Yusuf Bashir, said that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit because the originating summon was not properly signed.

According to Justice Bashir, it was the wrong to practice to commence the suit with originating summons but instead by writ of summon.

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He said the lower court ought not to have entertained the suit and therefore lacked jurisdiction and locus.

Recall that two party aspirants in the primary election for the constituency, Segun Ategbole and John Adanike, had approached the court to challenge the victory of Adefarati.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the election, removed the name of Adefarati from the published list of House of Representatives members-elect.

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

The INEC , while giving reasons for the delisting said it was due to the court order that invalidated the party’s primary, which produced Adefarati as the candidate for the constituency.

Counsel to Adefarati, Chief Olusola Oke SAN, Alhali Kabir Ajana,SAN and Barrister Yinka Orokoto hailed the court of Appeal verdict validating his nomination.

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