A fresh legal battle is brewing over Ekiti’s June 20 governorship election, as a disqualified APC aspirant heads to the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
Mrs. Abimbola Olajumoke Olawunmi, who was barred from participating in the APC’s governorship primary last October, has filed a Notice of Appeal challenging the Federal High Court’s dismissal of her earlier suit, a decision she argues was not only legally flawed but amounted to a fundamental miscarriage of justice.
Named as respondents in the appeal are the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Governor Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, who emerged from the disputed primary as the party’s candidate and is now the frontrunner in the June governorship race.
The roots of this legal dispute stretch back to October 9, 2025, when the APC’s 179th National Working Committee (NWC) meeting made a decision that would set events in motion.
At that meeting, Olawunmi was disqualified from the party’s governorship primary on two principal grounds: questions surrounding her financial standing and the alleged absence of her name from the party’s revalidated membership register.
Eighteen days later, on October 27, 2025, the APC conducted its governorship primary—without her. Governor Oyebanji was endorsed as the party’s candidate, a result Olawunmi has refused to accept as legitimate.
Olawunmi maintains that her exclusion was not only procedurally improper but also directly contravenes Section 84(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, and Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provisions that clearly outline the qualifications for contesting a governorship seat. In her view, the party’s NWC overstepped its bounds and effectively robbed her of a constitutionally guaranteed right.
Olawunmi had initially sought redress at the Federal High Court in Abuja, but Justice Peter Lifu dealt her case a decisive blow in a judgment delivered on April 15, 2026, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/2221/2025.
The trial court ruled on two separate but equally fatal grounds. First, it found that the suit was statute-barred, having been filed well outside the 14-day window prescribed by law for pre-election matters.
In the court’s own words, it took the plaintiff “more than 27 days” to approach the court after the alleged disqualification—a delay that, by itself, was sufficient to sink the case.
Beyond the timing issue, Justice Lifu agreed with arguments advanced by the defendants that the question of party membership, including whether Olawunmi’s name rightfully belonged in the APC’s revalidated register, was purely an internal affair of the political party, one that no court could properly inquire into.
The court went further, finding that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action and was non-justiciable, ultimately dismissing the case in favor of the defendants.
Far from conceding defeat, Olawunmi has returned to court with a sharpened legal argument. Through her legal team, led by the seasoned litigator Chief Ayotunde Ogunleye, she is now pressing the Court of Appeal on a point of procedural law that could reopen the door to the merits of her case.
Her central argument is that the Federal High Court committed a reversible error: having declined jurisdiction over the matter, the trial court ought to have struck out her suit rather than dismissing it outright.
That distinction, her legal team argues, is not a mere technicality; dismissal, unlike a strike-out, carries with it the implication that a court has examined the substance of a case and found it wanting. By dismissing a suit over which it claimed to have no jurisdiction, the trial court, in Olawunmi’s submission, muddied the legal waters and caused her irreparable prejudice.
In a bold move, Olawunmi is also invoking Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act, 2021, asking the appellate court to assume jurisdiction itself and resolve the substantive issues at the heart of the dispute, describing the matter as a pre-election controversy requiring urgent judicial attention given the June 20 election date.
The reliefs being sought by the appellant are sweeping in scope and, if granted, would dramatically reshape the political landscape ahead of the Ekiti governorship election.
Olawunmi is asking the Court of Appeal to declare her disqualification unlawful, null, and void and to set aside all actions taken in furtherance of that decision—including the outcome of the October 27 primary. She is seeking orders to nullify the primary election outright and compel the APC to conduct a fresh exercise in which she must be allowed to participate.
She is also asking the court to restrain INEC from recognizing or processing the candidacy of anyone who emerged from the disputed primary—a request that, if successful, would directly target Governor Oyebanji’s standing as the APC’s candidate. Additionally, she wants INEC to be compelled to disqualify such candidates pending the conduct of a new primary.
With just weeks to go before the Ekiti governorship election, the timing of this appeal adds a layer of urgency that courts will find difficult to ignore. Pre-election litigation has a well-established track record of reshaping Nigerian electoral contests, and this case is no different.
For the APC and Governor Oyebanji’s camp, the appeal represents an unwelcome distraction at a critical moment in their campaign. For Olawunmi and her supporters, it is nothing less than a last stand—an attempt to vindicate what they see as a fundamental democratic injustice before the ballot boxes open.
Legal observers will be watching closely to see whether the Court of Appeal is persuaded by the procedural argument at the heart of the appeal and whether it will be willing to wade into the politically charged terrain of party membership and primary conduct that the Federal High Court chose to avoid.
One thing is certain: the battle for Ekiti’s governorship is being fought on more than one front—and the courtroom may yet prove to be the most consequential.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
A disqualified APC governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Mrs. Abimbola Olajumoke Olawunmi, is challenging her exclusion from the party’s October 2025 primary all the way to the Court of Appeal in Abuja—and her case could upend the entire process that produced Governor Oyebanji as the party’s candidate for the June 20 election.
Olawunmi says that the ruling was legally wrong, and she is now asking a higher court to not only reverse it but also to nullify the primary altogether and order a fresh one.
With the election weeks away, the clock is ticking. If the Court of Appeal acts on her request, it could throw Ekiti’s governorship race into fresh uncertainty.
