The Court of Appeal, Ibadan, on Thursday, dismissed appeals brought before it by the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) candidate, Professor Wole Akinboade and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) against the judgment delivered on March 17 by the tribunal which upheld the election of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

In a short ruling, the tribunal dismissed their petition because they could not prove their cases beyond reasonable doubt.

Though the panel was presided over by Justice Dattito Muhammad, Justice Istifanus read the unanimous ruling of the court since he presided over both appeals.

In his ruling, Justice Thomas said there was no valid appeal before it since the appellants had come with no notice of appeals and neither were there records of proceedings from the lower tribunal with the court registry nor any in the judges’ files.

He said that the Court of Appeal rules and the Court Practice Direction 2007 mandated appellants to file notices of appeal within 30 days, which, according to him, the appellants in the instant appeal had failed to comply with after many months since judgment was given.


The Court upheld the application for noncompliance brought by the respondents’ lawyers, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Chief Makanjuola Esan (SAN) seeking that the case be dismissed for non-compliance with Order 8 rule 4 of the C.O.A rules.


In his reaction, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala said the ruling was “yet another symptom of the political virus plaguing the opposition in the state.”


According to him in a statement by his Special Adviser on Public Communication, Prince Dotun Oyelade, “the striking out of the opposition’s appeal was a dress rehersal for the judicial demise to which the opposition had already led itself.”