Olawunmi loses bid to arrest judgment in Ekiti APC governorship primary dispute
….Appeal Court dismisses her application for being time wasting
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an application filed by a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mrs Abimbola Olajumoke Olawumi with which she had sought to arrest the judgment of the court in an appeal she filed.
A three-member panel of the appellate court held, in a unanimous ruling on Wednesday afternoon, that the application, filed for Olawumi by her lawyer, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), was not only strange, it was “hopeless, reckless and constituted an unpardonable abuse of the judicial process.”
Justice Okon Abang, who read the lead judgment, held that it was strange that Mrs. Olawumi would approach the court with an application to seek the reopening of her appeal that had been heard and judgment reserved on the grounds that she has got a new lawyer and wanted to amend her brief of argument that had beed adopted by her earlier lawyer.
Justice Abang noted that the appellant/applicant was present in court on June 2 when her substantive appeal was heard along with an application she filed for leave to regularise her brief of argument, with ruling and judgment reserved.
He said it was strange that after participating in the hearing of the her application and appeal, she claimed to have fired her lawyer, Chief Ayotunde Ogunleye (SAN) and engaged Adegboruwa, who sought to have the appeal reopened for her to amend the appellant’s brief which she claimed was beyond the number of pages allowed by the court’s rules.
Justice Abang, who held that Olawumi should not be heard to raise issue of fair hearing, having witnessed the court’s proceedings in which she was represented by lawyers, said there is nowhere the laws under which the appellant/applicant filed her appeal that allow for the filing of the kind of application she brought.
The judge held that since she was present on June 2 and was represented by a lawyer when the appeal and application were heard, Mrs. Olawumi could not turn around to engage a new lawyer, file an application to set aside the proceedings of the court that were lawfully conducted, and apply for the reopening of the appeal.
He said: “The appellant/applicant cannot seek to argue her appeal in piecemeal. The application by Ebun Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), to arrest the judgement, is a joke taken too far.
“There is no basis to set aside the proceedings, stay proceedings or reopen the appeal. The appellant, on her own, engaged a counsel of her choice.
“Her application to regularise her brief was heard and ruling reserved. She has been given sufficient opportunity to conduct her apppel. She cannot complain of denial of fair hearing.
“She cannot, in indecent haste, engage a new lawyer when judgment in her appeal has not been delivered,” Justice Abang said, adding that she should not anticipate the court’s judgment, but should await the court’s final decision on her appeal.
The judge further held that “this is a clear attempt to arrest the ruling and judgment of the court that have been reserved. This cannot take place under our watch.”
He said the application, apart from being time wasting, was intended to overreach the defendants, noting that issues canvassed in it were similar to those in her application on which ruling was reserved.
Justice Abang proceeded to declare that: “This application lacks merit. It is an abuse of the process of court and a waste of the court precious time. It is dismissed.”
He then awarded against Olawumi, a cost of N6million to be paid at N2million to each of the three respondents – the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Governor Abiodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State.
It was learnt on Wednesday that the ruling and judgment, reserved by the Court of Appeal in the appeal filed by Olawumi, marked: CA/ABJ/CV/557/2026 would be delivered at 11 am on Thursday.
Mrs. Olawumi was a governorship aspirant of the APC, but was disqualified by the party, a decision she challenged before the Federal High Court in Abuja and lost. She subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The Court of Appeal heard the appeal and other pending applications on June 2 and reserved ruling and judgment to a date to be communicated to parties.
Before the appellate court could communicate the date for ruling and judgment to parties, Olawumi filed an application on June 8 through Adegboruwa, praying the court to among others, set aside the proceedings conducted on June 2, reopen the appeal for rehearing and to enable her amend her appellant’s brief of argument.
It was the application that the Court of Appeal described as strange and a waste of time in its ruling on Wednesday.