Fadeyi Fires Back: Supreme Court Judgment Does Not Invalidate My Candidacy

Reloaded News Desk

Senator Olubiyi Fadeyi has pushed back against suggestions that the recent Supreme Court judgment on provisions of the Electoral Act has thrown his Osun Central senatorial candidacy into doubt.

Fadeyi insists there is no such development.

Reacting to the controversy, the senator maintained that the Supreme Court judgment did not concern his candidature or the process through which he emerged as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Osun Central.

His argument is straightforward: neither he nor the PDP was a party to the case decided by the Supreme Court.

Fadeyi said the judgment arose from a dispute involving other political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and that the court did not make any order nullifying his candidacy, cancelling his nomination or removing his name from the ballot.

He therefore rejected attempts to present the judgment as though the Supreme Court had delivered a verdict on his personal eligibility to contest the election.

According to him, his nomination was conducted in accordance with the relevant constitutional provisions, the Electoral Act and the rules of the PDP.

He also pointed to his recognition by INEC as the PDP candidate for Osun Central, maintaining that his name has been submitted and published through the statutory electoral process.

The controversy follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding provisions of the Electoral Act dealing with political-party membership registers and the nomination of candidates.

The provisions, particularly Section 77 and Section 84, have attracted renewed political attention because of their implications for party membership, primaries and candidate nomination.

But Fadeyi’s position is that the existence of those provisions and the Supreme Court’s decision on their constitutional validity does not amount to a judicial finding against him.

The senator’s argument is that his candidacy must be examined on its own facts and documents, rather than being linked automatically to litigation in which he was not a party.

He consequently dismissed suggestions that the Supreme Court judgment had automatically knocked him out of the Osun Central race.

The political significance of the dispute, however, goes beyond the immediate controversy.

Osun Central is shaping up as one of the closely watched senatorial contests ahead of the 2027 elections, with the nomination process already attracting political and legal scrutiny.

For Fadeyi, the message is clear; the Supreme Court judgment did not dislodge him, and he remains the PDP candidate for Osun Central.

Any attempt to establish otherwise, he maintains, must be based on a specific legal challenge to his nomination not on a judgment in which neither he nor the PDP was a party.