Less than 24 hours to the Ondo State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has restored Olorunfemi Ayodele Festus, whose name was first published, as the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the Saturday’s poll.
Consequently, INEC has dropped Olusola Ebiseni initially listed as LP governorship candidate, following an Appellate Court order which ordered for the reversal.
The electoral body disclosed this in a post on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday evening.
The post read: “The Commission was yesterday 14th November 2024 served with the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement of the Court of Appeal which set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja Division.
“The FHC, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1105/2024 had on 27th September 2024 ordered the Commission to accept Olusola Ebiseni as the candidate of the Labour Party for the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election.
“However, in the appeal with reference number CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024 filed by the Labour Party, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division struck out the judgement of the FHC for lack of jurisdiction.
“In obedience to the court order, the Commission has restored Olorunfemi Ayodele Festus, whose name was first published as the Labour Party candidate for the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election and uploaded same to our website for public information.”