Tribunal Sacks Adeleke As Osun Governor, Declares Oyetola Winner of July 16, 2022 Election
The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal has nullified the declaration of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
It therefore, ordered the INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to senator Adeleke.
INEC had declared Adeleke, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the winner of the July 16 Osun State governorship election after he was adjudged to have polled 403,107 votes as against, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress,APC Gboyega Oyetola who polled 373,000 votes.
Not satisfied by the INEC’s declaration, Oyetola however approached the court seeking nullification of Governor Adeleke’s victory on the ground of inelegibility as at the time of election, certificate forgery and over voting.
Delivering the lead judgement, the chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Tertsea Kume granted Oyetola’s petition, establishing that the election was conducted with substantial noncompliance with the provision of the law.
He said after deducting invalid votes from lawful vote, the first petitioner, Oyetola polled 314,921 while the second despondent, Adeleke polled 290,266 votes.
He then ordered the INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to senator Adeleke.
Earlier, justice Kume had held that Senator Adeleke was as at the time of the election qualified to contest.
In a dissenting judgement, Justice Benedict Ogbuli, disagreed with the majority judgement delivered by the chairman saying that the petitioners’ case has not been satisfactorily proved and hereby dismissed.
Counsel for the petitioners, Saka Layonu, SAN, commenced commended the panel for delivering the judgement promptly and in favour the petitioners.
Also, counsel for the PDP and Adeleke told the panel that as it stands, there were two judgements and both the petitioners and respondents have the right of appeal.
