Supreme Court Upholds Adeleke’s Victory
Supreme Court sets aside the appeal by Adegboyega Oyetola challenging the election of Ademola Adeleke as the Governor of Osun State.
The apex Court in its judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim also upholds the Appeal Court’s judgment which upheld the election of Governor Adeleke.
The judgement followed an earlier decision by a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Mohammed Shuaibu, which affirmed his victory, nullifying the judgement of the election petition tribunal.
The election petition tribunal had in January this year nullified the governor’s victory, over the allegation of overvoting in the July 16, 2022 governorship poll.
Adegboyega Oyetola, the immediate-past governor of the state, had filed a petition challenging Adeleke’s victory.
According to all the members of the panel, the appeal lacks merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeleke the winner of the poll, saying he scored 403,371 votes to sack Oyetola who was the then incumbent with 375,027.
However, Oyetola and his party had alleged irregularities in the polls and challenged Adeleke’s victory at the Tribunal.
Respite came for the former governor on January 27, 2023, as Justice Tertse Kume who gave the majority judgement upturned Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll.
Justice Kume held that Oyetola scored the majority lawful votes of 314,931 against Adeleke’s 290,266.
But not satisfied with the judgement, Adeleke and the PDP headed to the Court of Appeal, which on March 24 nullified the Tribunal judgment and returned Adeleke as the winner.
Aggrieved with the Appeal Court’s verdict, Oyetola and the PDP headed for the Supreme Court also backed the Appeal Court and upheld Adeleke’s victory.
