Why Supreme Court upheld Adeleke’s victory
The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court affirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision to reinstate Adeleke as governor.
Earlier in March, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had reinstated Adeleke as the governor of Osun.
A three-member panel of justices concluded that the Osun election tribunal had made an error when it ruled that the allegations of over-voting brought by the first and second respondents (Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress) were proven.
According to the panel of judges, Adeleke is the duly elected governor of the state.
In January, the Osun governorship election tribunal had determined that Oyetola was able to provide evidence of over-voting in certain polling units.
Consequently, the majority judgment of the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to invalidate the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and issue a fresh one to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.
Adeleke, dissatisfied with the ruling, appealed the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
In August 2022, Gboyega Oyetola, the former Osun governor, and the APC petitioned the tribunal, contesting Adeleke’s victory.
Among various issues, Oyetola argued that there had been overvoting in 749 polling units across 10 local government areas of the state.
On January 27, the tribunal, with a three-member panel, ruled that the petitioner had successfully proven the occurrence of over-voting in some polling units.
As a result, the majority decision of the tribunal ordered INEC to invalidate the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and issue a fresh one to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.
“For the sake of emphasis, the total lawful votes for each of the candidates after deducting the invalid votes are 314,931 for the first petitioner, and 290,666 for the second respondent,” stated Tetsea Kume, who read the majority decision.
“Therefore, the second respondent did not receive a majority of lawful votes cast in the election. The declaration and return are hereby declared null and void.
“The second respondent cannot claim to be the duly elected governor of Osun State in the election held on the 16th day of July 2022. Referencing Kizz Daniel’s song, ‘Buga.’
“Instead, we hereby affirm that the first petitioner received a majority of lawful votes in the said election and is accordingly declared as such.
“The first respondent is hereby instructed to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the second respondent and issue it to the first petitioner as the duly elected governor of Osun State.”
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