The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo state capital on Wednesday dismissed the Appeal filed by elected 18 Local Government Chairmen in Ondo State.

The appeal was heard by a three-man panel of Justices of the Appeal Court, Akure, including Justices M. A Danjuma, R M. Abdullahi and P. A. Mahmoud as members.

Justice Danjuma in his lead judgment upheld the part of the preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of Court of Appeal filed by Charles Titiloye who is the counsel appearing for the 6th to 8th Respondents which are the Attorney General of Ondo State and Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission, (ODIEC).

Titiloye had argued that the former local Government chairmen and councillors lacked the locus standi to appear at the Court of Appeal on the issue of counsel representation before the trial Court in respect of another political party-the Peoples Redemption Party(PRP) which is different from the party that sponsored the appellants for the local government election.

The dissolved PDP local government council chiefs had appeal the dissolution of local Govt council by Ondo state High Court as interested party on the ground that the counsel who filed the action on behalf of PRP at the lower Court did not receive the blessings of the PRP at the national level.

It would be recalled that the Ondo State High Court, sitting in Akure dissolved the 18 Local Government Council of Ondo State in 2017 based on a suit filed by PRP that the party was unlawfully excluded from participating in the local government election in the State.

The Court of appeal held that parts of the grounds contained in the Notice of Appeal of the dissolved local government boss was incompetent and struck them out along with issues formulated by the lead appellants Counsel, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN)relating to counsel representation for PRP.

It ruled that the election that brought the PDP local Government bosses and councillors into office was an act of illegality and no enforceable right can be based on the said election.

According to the court, the election was conducted in flagrant disregard of the Federal High Court orders that PRP was a registered political party entitled to nominate candidates for the said election.

The Appeal Court further pointed out that the case before the lower Court was a pre- election matter and the amendment of reliefs granted by the trial Court to include consequential reliefs which allowed it to dissolve the local government Council and invalidate the election conducted in contravention of orders of Court and pending case in Court was in order and valid.

It rejected the contention of Adedipe that the trial Court lacked jurisdiction to have entertained the case in view of the fact that it is not an election petition tribunal recognised by the constitution.

In resolving the issue in favour of Respondent’s Counsel, Titiloye, the Court noted that the cause of action in the case involved sponsorship and nomination of candidates for election,

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