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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The supreme court has affirmed the election of Sen Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
Delivering judgement on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the the appeal files by Oyetola and All Progressives Congress (APC) lacked “any scintilla of merit.”
The panel led by Justice John Inyang Okoro held that Oyetola and the APC failed to prove allegations of non-accreditation of voters in 749 polling units with the BVAS, resulting in over-voting.
The panel also unanimously held that the failure of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal to consider the preliminary objections raised by Adeleke and the PDP at the trial level rendered the entire proceeding a nullity
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the judgement held that the Court of Appeal correctly reinstated Adeleke as governor.
In March, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja reinstated Adeleke as the governor of Osun state.
A three-member panel of justices of the appellate court held that the election tribunal erred when it ruled that the 1st and 2nd respondents (Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress) proved their allegations of over-voting beyond reasonable doubt.
According to the panel of judges, Adeleke is the duly elected governor of the state.
The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had in January held that Oyetola was able to prove that there was over-voting in some of the polling units.
Consequently, the majority judgement of the tribunal delivered by Jusitce Tertse Kume ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and issue a fresh one to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun State.
Dissatisfied with the judgement, Adeleke approached the Court of Appeal.
Oyetola and APC had in August 2022 petitioned the tribunal to challenge the victory of Adeleke.
Among several issues, Oyetola contended that there was over-voting in 749 polling units across 10 local government areas of the state.
Delivering judgment, two out of the three-member panel of the tribunal held that the petitioner was able to prove that there was indeed over-voting in some of the polling units.