The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, in his reaction to the judgment of the governorship election petitions tribunal which nullified his victory at the poll, described it as a miscarriage of justice, vowing to challenge the ruling at the appeal court.
According to a statement signed by Olawale Rasheed, the Spokesman to the Governor, Adeleke, who was speaking on the verdict of the tribunal from his country home in Ede, faulted the resolution of the over-voting question in favor of Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, calling it “an unfair interpretation against the will of the majority of voters”
Urges his supporters to remain calm
Governor Adeleke urged his supporters to remain calm and vowed to appeal the judgment at the Court of Appeal, insisting he remained the rightful winner of the July 16 election.
- The governor said, “I call on our people to remain calm. We will appeal the judgment and we are sure justice will be done. Let our people be reassured that we will do everything possible to retain this widely acclaimed mandate.’’
In case you missed it
- The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal had earlier today nullified the election of Ademola Adeleke as the Governor of Osun State and declared Gboyega Oyetola as the validly elected governor of the state.
- The tribunal while annulling the July 16 Osun governorship election results, held that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not comply substantially with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act as amended.
- Delivering judgment on Friday, two out of a three-member panel of the tribunal held that the petitioner was able to prove that there was over-voting in some of the polling units.
- Tetsea Kume, who read the majority decision subsequently deducted the over-voting observed from the votes scored by the candidates and declared that Oyetola won the election, having polled 314, 921, while Adeleke’s score came down to 290, 266.
- He directed INEC to withdraw Adeleke’s certificate of return and issue another one to Oyetola who won a majority of the lawful votes.