Court of Appeal suspends Decision on Ondo PDP GUBER Crisis

The crisis rocking the PDP took a new turn as the Court of Appeal on Tuesday withheld its much anticipated ruling on the controversy surrounding the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the forthcoming Ondo state governorship election.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently announced billionaire businessman, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP candidate for the election, based on the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja and aspirants had thronged the Court for its ruliing.

Mr Eyitayo Jegede SAN, Former attorney-general of the state, who had been selected as the candidate of the party by the Ahmed Makarfi faction thereafter appealed the decision of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice Okon Abang.

Premium Times reports that newsmen waiting for the verdict of the Court of Appeal on Tuesday were informed by court officials that the ruling had been suspended.

No new date was however announced for the ruling.

Prodded further to state the reason for the suspension of the ruling, the court officials told newsmen that the ruling was suspended following a petition against the judges accusing them of bias.

What the suspension of the ruling implies is that Mr Jimoh Ibrahim remains the candidate of the PDP for the November 26 Ondo governorship election.

INEC had earlier stated that it would only effect a change in the name of the party’s candidate if the Court of Appeal gave an order to do so.

Nigeria’s judiciary has been under the spotlight in recent times following the arrest of some judges for alleged corruption.

A number of judges from the High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have also been accused of receiving bribes from politicians to alter decisions.