It is now a settled case that Ademola Adeleke will govern Osun State for the next 4 years.Â
The Supreme Court in a verdict laid to rest every push that Adegboyega Oyetola was making to remove Governor Adeleke and take over.
Oyetola was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the gubernatorial election in Osun State.
Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the legally elected Governor of Osun State.
The court held that, while Oyetola claimed that Adeleke won due to over-voting in 774 polling units across the state,
He did not, however, produce any Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, a machine used in any of the polling units to back up his claim.
“It is clear that the Appellant did not provide any BVAS in evidence, but instead sought to prove over-voting through an examination of INEC’s database or backend server.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled that because the BVAS contained a record of accredited voters, it was “the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on election day.
It was determined that nothing in Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18-23 of the INEC Regulations required Presiding Officers in an election to transmit by BVAS.
It rejected the testimony of purported expert witnesses who testified in Oyeyola’s favour.
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Also, the Supreme Court said there was no reason to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision, which upheld Adeleke’s election victory.
Earlier, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, in a split decision on January 27, declared Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the winner of the gubernatorial election.
In its majority verdict, the three-member panel tribunal led by Justice Tertsea Kume upheld a petition brought before it by the former governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who finished second in the election.
It ruled that Adeleke did not receive a majority of valid votes, and that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act of 2022.
The petitioners, Oyetola and APC, successfully established overvoting in 744 polling units in the state, according to the tribunal.
After deducting the alleged invalid votes, the tribunal declared Oyetola the winner of the governorship election, while ordering INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return it had previously issued to Adeleke.
However, in his dissenting opinion, the third member of the panel, Justice P. Ogbuli, affirmed Adeleke as the legitimate winner of the election while dismissing the petition filed by Oyetola and the APC.
Meanwhile, following an appeal filed by Adeleke and the PDP, the Court of Appeal reversed the tribunal’s decision on March 24.
Adeleke’s appeal was upheld by the appellate court in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices.
Aside from the tribunal’s setting and judgment, the court, in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu, awarded the APC and its candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, a cost of N500,000.
Dissatisfied with the decision, both Oyetola and the APC appealed to the Supreme Court, where they were defeated on Tuesday.
