The candidacy of former Ogun Central Senator, Prof. Iyabo Obasanjo, for the 2027 election has been placed in fatal legal jeopardy by Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment restoring the Electoral Act 2026 provisions on party membership registers and candidate nomination.
In a unanimous decision delivered on 24 September 2026, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Adamu Jauro, allowed INEC’s appeal, set aside the Court of Appeal judgment and restored Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026. The apex court held that those provisions are not inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution.
The restored law is unambiguous. Only persons whose names appear in the membership register a party submitted to INEC not later than 21 days before a primary, congress or convention may participate. A party may not use any other register. A party that fails to submit its register within the stipulated time cannot field a candidate.
Those rules now govern Iyabo Obasanjo’s nomination.
She was still an APC member when she took part in the party’s governorship process earlier this year. Her resignation letter was dated 31 May 2026 and became public on 8 June. On 15 June she was received back into the PDP at the party secretariat in Abeokuta. By 17 June she had been presented as the PDP candidate for Ogun Central.
That sequence cannot be wished away.
A reception at a secretariat does not insert a name into a register already filed with INEC. A flag presentation does not cure a defective nomination. Rallies and campaign appearances do not rewrite the Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court did not name Iyabo Obasanjo in its order. It did something more decisive: it restored the statutory test against which her nomination must now be measured. If the PDP cannot produce the register submitted to INEC, show that her name was on it at the relevant time, and prove that the process that produced her complied with Sections 77 and 84(2), the nomination is legally defective.
The dates leave almost no room. Resignation from the APC at the end of May. Public return to the PDP in mid-June. Immediate emergence as senatorial candidate. Under the restored 21-day register rule, that chronology is not a political inconvenience. It is a statutory problem.
Thursday’s judgment also ends the pretence that the disputed provisions had been suspended by the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court overturned that decision. The law is back in force.
The burden is now on the PDP. It must show the register, the date of submission, the presence of her name, and a nomination process that satisfied the Act. Until those records exist and survive scrutiny, Iyabo Obasanjo’s rapid jump from APC governorship aspirant to PDP Ogun Central candidate stands exposed.
Political declarations will not save it. The records will decide it. On the face of the restored law and the published timeline, she stands disqualified from the race.
No comments:
Post a Comment