Key Highlight
- Adeleke had sought to void the decision of the election tribunal in osun that annulled his election.
- He approached the court of appeal Abuja in a petition seeking to overturn the decision.
- The appellate court in its decision revoked the Tribunal’s order which directed the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to
The court of Appeal in Abuja has declared Ademola Adeleke the duly elected governor of Osun State.
The Appellate court on Friday dismissed the decision of an election Tribunal which annulled the election of Adeleke.
Recall on January 27, 2023, the election tribunal led by Justice Tertse Kume annulled Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll.
However, A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu held that Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress were not able to prove that there was a case of over-voting by the PDP and its candidate.
Backstory
On July 16, Osun state held its governorship election and the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Adeleke the winner in the election held across 3,763 polling units in the 30 local government areas of the state.
According to the returning Officer, Adeleke secured 403,371 votes, defeating Oyetola who polled 375,027 votes. while Adeleke won 17 LGAs out of the 30 LGAs, Oyetola won 13.
Not satisfied with the outcome, Oyetola and APC approached the Osun state governorship election tribunal in a petition seeking to annul the result of the election
He alleged that there was over-voting in 749 polling units. He also alleged that Adeleke had forged his certificates.
INEC and PDP were also listed as respondents in the case.
The panel led by …. Held that the July 16 election was done in substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Acts and extant regulations.
The panel held that the petitioner ( Oyetola) has been able to establish that there was overvoting in 749 polling units.
The panel said “the total lawful vote cast for each of the candidates after the said deduction of invalid votes is 314,931 for the first petitioner and 290,266 votes for the second respondent.
“The second respondent did not score a majority of lawful votes cast for the election. The declaration and return are hereby declared null and void.
”We hereby hold that the first petitioner scored the majority of lawful votes in the said election and is hereby returned as such.
“The first respondent is hereby directed to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the second respondent and give the first petitioner Certificate of Return as the duly elected Governor.”
Not satisfied with the decision of the Tribunal, Adeleke approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja seeking to annul the decision of the election tribunal in Osun.
The decision of the Court of Appeal
The Appeal court on Friday set aside the tribunal judgment that nullified the election of Adeleke.
In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices held that the appeal lodged by Adeleke to challenge his sack by the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was meritorious.
The panel which was led by led by Justice Mohammed Lawal held that “The party alleging non-compliance with the electoral act must prove its case without merely relying on the weakness of the other party.”
Justice Mohammed overruled the judgment of the governorship election tribunal that nullified the outcome of the July governorship polls.
The tribunal’s order which directed that a Certificate of Return be withdrawn from Adeleke and issued to Oyetola was revoked by the panel.