>
Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Monday, reserved judgement in the appeals filed by the Osun State Governor, Sen Ademola Adeleke, and his party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the tribunal judgement which nullified the former’s victory in the July 16,2022 governorship election.
The three-member panel of justices led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu began sitting on the appeals around 10am on Monday. While Adeleke is the appellant, Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are 1st and 2nd respondents in the appeal.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also joined as 3rd respondent.
The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on January 27, voided the July 16, 2022, election that produced Adeleke as the governor.
INEC had declared Adeleke the winner of the election after polling a total of 403,371 votes. He was said to have won in 17 out of the 30 local government areas in the state.
But the panel led by Justice Terste Kume, in its judgement invalidated the election and declared Gboyega Oyetola of APC as the valid winner of the poll.
The tribunal directed INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusi, both of whom had been sworn-in.
It, however, directed that the Certificate of Return should be issued to Oyetola.
Justice Kume held that the governorship election was not held in compliance with Electoral Act 2022 as amended. The tribunal also held that the governorship election was characterised by over-voting, adding that after deducting the excessive votes, the figure Oyetola polled in the election was 314,921.
The tribunal, thus, ordered that Oyetola should be returned as governor of Osun State.
INEC had in its result said Oyetola won in 13 local government areas with 375,027 votes in the July 16, 2022 governorship election.
In his petition, Oyetola, the immediate-past governor of the state, had alleged that the election was characterised by over-voting in 749 polling units.
He also argued that Adeleke forged the academic credentials he submitted to INEC.
During Monday’s proceedings, counsel to Adeleke, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), held that a member of the panel, who is also a chief magistrate, did not air her opinion during the judgement delivery. Rather, she only appended her signature and the constitution mandates her to have aired her views about the suit.
Counsel to Oyetola, Lateef Fagbemi, however, held that signing the judgement and not making any comment afterwards does not make the judgement invalid.
He noted that the case of over voting exceeded six polling units as claimed by the applicant, adding that the anomaly was experienced in 749 polling units across the state.
Fagbemi further stressed that the findings of over-voting were obtained from the back end server of INEC.
In his defence, Ikpeazu held that results stored in the backend server are inconsistent and unreliable as they can be affected by internet connectivity and battery life of the BVAS used to upload the results.
These two factors, according to him, can affect the upload.
Adeleke’s counsel also stated that he conducted a physical examination BVAS and it showed that over-voting occurred in just six polling units and not 749claimed by Oyetola.
After adopting their final written addresses, Justice Shuaibu said judgement would be given at a later date, adding that the date would be communicated to the parties involved.