The Supreme Court sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the Governor of Osun State.
The apex court in a ruling on Tuesday held that the Appeal Court’s decision to reinstate Adeleke and nullify the judgement of the election petition tribunal was correct.
The apellate court had on Friday, March 24 set aside the decision of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal which sacked Adeleke as the state governor.
Recall that on Friday, 27 January 2023, Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal annulled the result of the July 16 Osun governorship poll and declared that Adegboyega Oyetola, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking a second term in office won the election.
Justice Tetsea Kume, while delivering a majority decision, declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not comply substantially with the constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.
He subsequently deducted the over-voting observed from the votes scored by the candidates and declared that Oyetola won the election, having polled 314, 921, while Adeleke’s score came down to 290, 266.
However, in a unanimous agreement by a three-man panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu, the Court of Appeal quashed the tribunal’s judgement and gave its verdict to uphold Adeleke as rightful governor of Osun State.
The panel held that the Osun State Tribunal was wrong to have said that there was over voting, a claim that only relied on the evidence by Oyetola and the APC, and as such, doesn’t prove their case in any way.
The judge faulted Oyetola and APC, that they only relied on the data from the back end server and failed to look at the voters register which forms the foundation of the whole electoral process and as such, cannot strengthen their allegations of over voting.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
