Adeleke

On Monday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja reserved judgment over the appeal for the governorship of Osun State brought by Governor Ademola Adeleke.

Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party filed an appeal in response to a tribunal’s decision invalidating his election as governor of Osun State..

At around 10 am, the three-judge panel chaired by Justice M.F. Shuaibu began hearing the appeal. In the appeal identified as CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023, Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress are the first and second respondents, and Adeleke is the appellant.

In addition, the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission have been added as the third and fourth respondents, respectively.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal nullified the election that elected Adeleke of the PDP as governor on July 16, 2022, on January 27.

A total of 403,371 votes were cast in the race, and INEC declared Adeleke the victor. According to reports, he won in 17 out of the state’s 30 local government units.

However, in its ruling, the tribunal presided over by Judge Terste Kume ruled the election unlawful and named Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the APC as the legitimate victor.

The court ordered INEC to revoke the Certificate of Return that had been given to Adeleke and his appointed replacement, Kola Adewusi.

However, it stipulated that Oyetola should receive the Certificate of Return in its place.

According to Justice Kume, the governorship election was not conducted in accordance with the Nigerian Electoral Act. The panel concluded that there was excessive voting in the governorship race. According to the report, Oyetola received 314, 921 votes overall after the extra votes were subtracted.

As a result, the panel mandated that Oyetola be reinstated as governor of Osun State.

According to INEC’s earlier results, which were reported by NAN, Oyetola won the July 16, 2022 governorship election in 13 LGAs with 375,027 votes.

There were fifteen candidates running for the election, which was hotly contested by Adeleke and Oyetola.

The state’s recently-departed governor, Oyetola, said in his plea that there was over voting in 749 of the polling places during the election.

Additionally, he contended that Adeleke submitted false academic credentials to NEC in order to run for office.

A few weeks after the governorship election in August 2022, the tribunal had already begun to meet. Oyetola and the APC were the petitioners in the case, and their principal attorneys were Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and Akin Olujimi, SAN.

The first defendant was INEC, the second defendant was Adeleke, and the third defendant was PDP.

The hearing was still ongoing as at the time of filing the report.

The Appeal Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State, has affirmed Osun state governor-elect, Ademola Adeleke, as the authentic governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded gubernatorial poll in the state.

In a suit brought before it by a factional candidate of the PDP, Dotun Babayemi, against Adeleke was dismissed by the court on the ground that the primary that produced Adeleke was conducted by the party’s national leadership.

The ruling on Wednesday came barely two months after the Osun High Court declared the governor-elect as the true candidate of the PDP for the governorship election held recently in the state.
Before the ruling, Babayemi had asked the court to be recognized as the authentic candidate of the Party and nolify the primary that produced Adeleke, following the parallel primaries held on March 9.