Our attention has just been drawn to a letter credited to Mike Ozekhome (SAN) but the truth of which we doubt to the effect that he allegedly wrote the letter to the Attorney-General of Federation & Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Central Bank of Nigeria and others on local government councils in Osun State. The letter annexing CTC of the June 13th, 2025 Appeal court judgment has called for enforcement of the judgment so that the products of the ruse masquerading as local government elections purportedly held on 22nd February, 2025 would storm the councils.
Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN) is one of lawyers reputed to be very gentle and brilliant in their chosen career and the reason to, in a hurry, doubt the veracity of the letter credited to him. To set the record straight in order not to allow innocent members of the public to go astray over the publication, this response becomes imperative.
First and foremost, the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) is a party to the APP suit and appeal.
The letter has obviously exposed the writer as one who is either not in full brief of the facts of the matter or having no much understanding of legal intricacies involved.
The following facts as stated below remain undisputable,
1. judgment in Suit No. FHC/OS/CS/94/2022 (PDP) was delivered and enforced on 25th and 27th of November, 2022 respectively and there were no any elected council officers as at 30th November, 2022 when the judgment in Suit No. FHC/OS/103/2022 (APP) was delivered purportedly re-nullifying the elections which the judgment delivered in PDP suit had first nullified,
2. notices of Appeal were filed in respect of the two suits and one was prosecuted to a logical conclusion while the other one (APP) in which the Osun Allied Peoples Movement was one of the Appellants was tactically abandoned and on 13th January, 2025 the notice of appeal filed on 2nd December, 2022 in respect of the APP judgment of 30th November, 2022 was struck out for want of prosecution because records were not compiled and transmitted to the Court of Appeal in respect of the Notice of Appeal. This is what some PDP members, being also parroted by some commentators, describe as an appeal,
3. there was no any appeal and that was why motion leading to the ruling striking out the APP notice of appeal on 13th January, 2025 was given a miscellaneous number as CA/AK/226m/2024 and this position of law was also stated in the ruling delivered on 13th June, 2025,
4. while these same people mostly from the ruling party in the state began to make unintelligible noise over the dismissal of the notice of appeal and thundering around the dismissal as a judgment, one of the appellants in the APP judgment filed a motion on 23rd same January, 2025 to have the appeal relisted but the APP and Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) that conducted the election did not file any defence to it until after 10th February, 2025 when they rushed to file a defence to the relistment sought,
5. fortunately, on 10th February, 2025, judgment was delivered in the first one appealed by the APC, that is Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022, and the appeal which also included restoring of the elected officers in the councils was allowed and costs of two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N250,000) awarded against the PDP while the OSSIEC was seriously reprimanded in the judgment,
6. judgment in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022 was enforced on 17th February, 2025 and there was no any vacancy in the councils as at 22nd February, 2025 when the same OSSIEC Chaired by a known PDP chieftain mischievously claimed to have purportedly staged conduct of local government elections ridiculously sought to be recognized by the Silk via his doubtful publication,
7. meanwhile, on 13th June, 2025, the Court of Appeal held that the motion was incompetent which ordinarily ought to be struck out as such. However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the application noting that though they had power to so relist same, they went further to state that relisting the appeal would create a confusion, review or sit on appeal of its own earlier decision,
8. this well considered judgment further dignified by the Court of Appeal on 13th June, 2025 was the one delivered on 10th February, 2025 in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022 which led to the APC chairmen and councilors’ resumption of office on 17th February, 2025,
9. meanwhile, motion for relisting in the APP appeal which was struck out on 13th June, 2025 sought only one prayer (relistment) which was refused on a very noble and sound ground routed in settled legal principles,
10. one is disturbed when some unlettered politicians thronged the street and began to rumour that one judgment had sacked reinstated APC Chairmen and councillors, that some lawyers joined in this pathetic voyage made the whole boring movie more worrisome,
*11.the very big question should be, who among the parties ever sought court pronouncement over any local government elections in Osun State more so that the purported elections never existed as at 23rd January, 2025 when the motion for relisting was filed before the Court of Appeal?*
12. the author of the publication ought to further state “the holding of the Court of Appeal on that same 13th June, 2025 on defence the APC put in when the PDP sought court pronouncement in the ruling on the purported 22nd February, local government election”. No answer in that such never formed part of the issues submitted to the Court of Appeal for a ruling,
13. the author must prepare to tender unreserved apologies to Nigerians having surreptitiously sought to lure the Attorney-General of Federation & Minister of Justice to act contrary to the AGF’s earlier sound and legal opinion made on 20th February, 2025 opposing the illegally planned local government elections by the same OSSIEC which was thoroughly lambasted by the Court of Appeal on 10th February, 2025 in its decision which the court refused to review on 13th June, 2025,
14. it is very important that till date, no any appeal filed by the same PDP over the 10th February, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment and unless the author is prepared to state that Court of Appeal can review its decision or Federal High Court decision in APP is superior to the appeal court decision which was held to be on the same issues, between same parties and before same judex on 13th June, 2025, he must not be taken serious.
The author has asserted that “The Court of Appeal in the said CA/AK/270/2022 never made any consequential order for the reinstatement of the APC Chairmen/Councilors as it did not even pronounce on the propriety or otherwise of the election, it being a mere academic exercise. So, no such order exists till date.”
However, the author should be bold enough to equally state effect of when the appellate court states that lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear a matter as in the instant of the PDP appeal. Is it not commonsensical that all that the lower court held or ordered disappears along with the judgment! So, finding of the appeal being meritorious and accordingly allowing same would mean that the lower court’s order that on 25th November, 2022 sacking the reinstated elected officers remained? I doubt if that is the law being taught in the law school by the finding made from one law graduate.
Meanwhile, this young law graduate has directed that the Supreme Court decision in Chief Bola Ige vs. Dr. Victor Olunloyo might be helpful. Truly, it was found that the Supreme Court indeed stated in that judgment that, judgment of an Appeal Court, allowing an appeal, has the effect of substituting the Appeal Court judgment for the judgment of the Court below set aside, making the decision appealed against disappears altogether. The law graduate further advised us to be guided with other similar decisions in that line.
Similarly, the author erroneously maintained that having dismissed the motion for relisting by the majority decision of the Court of Appeal, Akure Judicial Division on the 13th of June, 2025, removal of all the 30 APC Chairmen/councillors is established and recognition to the purported election of the 30 PDP Chairmen/councillors. The author Mike Ozekhome (SAN) concealed a fact. The fact is that all he stated is his own personal opinion not contained in any of the ruling and it is incorrect from our further finding from some law diploma holders.
Some lawyers have argued that the Supreme Court has stated that dismissal of a plaintiff’s claim does not automatically confirm judgment to the winning party. They advised us to read Anwoyi v. Shodeke and Laminu v. Maidugu.
From the foregoing, it is important we refrain from making utterances capable of misleading the public and where we must, proper and adequate finding and research must be done. This will definitely save us from public embarrassment especially where a court says “A” and we go to the public to say “B” as in the instant case when the Court of Appeal delivered a Ruling on 13th June, 2025 in Appeal No. CA/AK/15/2025 and people storm out and tag same as a judgment contrary to what is stated at page 2 of the Ruling itself unless we do not understand the difference between a ruling and a judgment.
We use this medium to state that it is only the Supreme Court that can overturn or review the well-considered judgment of 10th February, 2025.
The ruling PDP is also advised to halt outsourcing business of appeal to populace tactics to outsiders alone. So many members of the PDP are capable of doing that and at the same time would pay tax to the state. This situation where non-indigenes are smiling to banks every day just for purpose of fact manipulation is not too fair to these home based members of the party.
Hon Adebayo Wale Simon
Chairman Osun State Allied People’s Movement (APM)