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Bizarre things will not cease to happen in Osun State under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke since he has been holding the sway in the state on the 27th November, 2022. The situation has been one day, one misstep in governance or glaring policy somersaults.
The latest of the anomalies in the state government of Senator Adeleke and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the strange wild celebration of an obiter dictum as the Court of Appeal judgment of the 13th June, 2025 on the reinstated All Progressives Congress (APC) legal government council chairmen and councillors either out of ignorance or a coordinated ploy to mis-interprete and subsequently misinform the unsuspecting members of the public for unmerited political gain.
The noise, hues and cries generated by the misinterpreted obiter dictum was so loud to the extent that it shook the 34-year-old state to its foundation all in an effort by the PDP political actors in the state to rewrite legal history concerning the issue at stake.
But the needless celebration by those who thought they could score a cheap political point is now fizzling out when it is now becoming clearer to them with the removal of the political sentiment that hitherto beclouded their senses of reasoning since the collection of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the controversial but non-ambiguous Court of Appeal judgment.
It was however, observed that those who are blessed with hindsight on the issue at stake and are not desirous to impugn their credibility and integrity have been maintaining their cool while the political foot soldiers of the PDP extractions have been damning all the consequences to spew and propagate falsehoods about the 13th of June, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment.
Of particular disinterest was the involvement of the chairman of the state supposed Independent Electoral Committee (OSSIEC) who has forgotten his role as an umpire but has been visibly defending the PDP and Governor Adeleke in his copious statements on the radio stations, social media platforms and traditional print media which was convincingly suggestive of the fact that the controversial OSSIEC chairman has glaringly hijacked the running of the administration of Governor Adeleke's administration.
It is necessary to restate the fact that the obiter dictum being flaunted by some of the Osun State PDP political functionaries is nothing but a metaphorical dead political sparrow which could neither sit nor fly but a mere symbolism of an achievement of a temporary political gain which has gone away with the tide.
We commend the reinstated APC chairmen and their councillors who did not allow the mere distraction of the PDP political goons to dampen their spirit and act as a wet blanket in their ongoing efforts to create real governance at the grassroots level of government across the nooks and crannies of the state.
One does not need to be certificated in law in order to recognise the sanctity of the 10th February, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment which expressly reinstated the APC local government council chairmen and councillors by the way of allowing all their prayers among which was their reinstatement and that it is only another higher court that has the power to set aside the 10th February, 2025 judgment which is the Supreme Court in this instance.
If not that the Osun State PDP has something to hide and was aware of the fact that it, all along, has been fighting a lost war, why was the ruling party afraid to challenge the 10th of February, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment at the Supreme Court instead of resulting to the shameless forum shopping at the lower courts for pliable judges that would do its bidding?
It is a legal anathema for a court to rule against itself or for a lower court to have such power to impeach the ruling of a higher court. It has never happened anywhere in the world and the case under review would not be an offshoot for such anomalous judicial rascality where an obiter dictum would take a precedent over a leading judgment.
Those who are at sea with the content of the CTC of the 13th June , 2025 Court of Appeal ruling should be guided that the phrase *obiter dictum* originates from Latin and literally translates to *something said by the way*.
In legal contexts, an obiter dictum refers to remarks made by a judge in a legal opinion that are not essential to the decision of the case and therefore do not establish legal precedent, thus not binding.
Judges have unfettered authority and are eminently qualified to make obiter dictum as their comments or observations during a legal ruling that are not directly related to the central issue of the case and therefore, not binding even on future courts.
It is instructive to explain that unlike the ratio decidendi (the legal reasoning behind a decision), obiter dicta do not create binding legal precedent.
Fertile minds and the members of the public should be aware of the fact that what the Appeal Court dismissed in the 13th of June, 2025 ruling was a relisting application, that is, the APC was trying to bring back an earlier appeal it had tactically abandoned.
As far as the CTC is concerned, there is no review of February 10, 2025 judgment. The court did not reverse the February 10, 2025 judgment which had declared the PDP sack of the APC-elected chairmen illegal.
In fact, the court refused to revisit it, stating: “The court will not sit on an appeal over its decision in Appeal No. CA/AK/270/2022.”
The relisting appeal of the 13th June, 2025 was thrown out for being late, not because APC had no case and the court did not rule on the legality of the purported February 22, 2025 PDP elections.
Based on the foregoing, it is glaring that the CTC is being misrepresented by the PDP media handlers and political functionaries while it was true that the court dismissed APC’s relisting application, it did not translate to the Court revision of the February 10, 2025 judgment that favoured the APC reinstated chairmen and councillors.
The CTC too did not affirm the purported February 22, 2025 PDP elections as valid or lawful; it only said relisting an abandoned appeal would serve no practical purpose. The low-level minds who are parroting misinformation over it did that deliberately to put temporary smiles on the faces of their gullible followers in that they too themselves know such is not a decision of the Court.
No one sought pronouncement of the Court of Appeal over the ruse election of 22nd February, 2025 in Appeal No. CA/AK/15/2025 in which a ruling was delivered on the 13th June, 2025. The Court of Appeal could only grant or refuse application to relist the appeal and has said it would not relist it based on its earlier decision of 10th February, 2025 which still remains binding.
It is necessary to hint the PDP's handlers, Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers that their celebration is shameful because the validity of the February 10, 2025 Court of Appeal judgment has not been overturned, and no competent court has ruled that the purported February 22, 2025 elections were conducted in full compliance with the law.
e-SIGNED:
Mogaji KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.
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