Today, on Friday, a three-member panel of the Appeal Court will render a decision in the legal dispute between Senator Ademola Adeleke, the current governor of Osun State, and Adegboyega Oyetola, his predecessor.
PulseNets reported that stress and concern is building up in the state, with advocates of the various interests unclear of the direction the decision would swing.
The Peoples Democratic Party’s Adeleke was proclaimed the winner of the gubernatorial election in Osun on July 16, 2022, but the All Progressives Congress’s Oyetola quickly contested the results, alleging that several polling places had had excessively high voter turnout.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja stated that the two parties to the legal dispute will get a ruling.
The Court had on March 14 reserved rulings in three appeals and a cross-appeal filed on the dispute over the gubernatorial election.
Ademola Adeleke, the governor of Osun State, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), filed substantive appeals against the January 27 ruling of the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal that declared Adeleke the winner of the election held on July 16, 2022.
The cross-appeal, jointly filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the election, Adegboyega Oyetola, is against a portion of the tribunal’s judgement.
According to PulseNets, Governor Adeleke was removed from office by the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal because he did not get the majority of valid votes cast in the state’s governorship election on July 16.
Two out of the three-member panel of the tribunal held that Oyetola could prove that there was indeed over-voting in some of the polling units.
In a split decision of two to one, the three-member panel of Justices Tertse Kume, P. Agbuli, and Rabi Bashir formed three issues for resolution, including whether the second respondent, Adeleke, was qualified to run for governor, whether there was a significant lack of compliance, and whether there was excessive voting. The majority judgement read by Justice Tertse Kume, panel Chairman, resolved the issue of qualification in favour of Adeleke and held that “as at the time of the election, he is duly qualified to contest”.
On second and third issues, the tribunal held that the conduct of the election was not in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act as amended.
According to the tribunal, “the defences of the respondents are tainted with fundamental flaws, irreconcilable and unreliable, incapable of defeating the credible evidence tendered by the petitioners in respect of the 744 polling units where over voting has been established.”
Consequently, the majority judgement of the tribunal ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and issue a fresh one to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.
Adeleke, on the other hand, had immediately denounced the verdict and vowed to appeal it.
His immediate reaction then was that the judgement: “is an unfair interpretation against the will of the majority of voters. I call on our people to remain calm. We will appeal the judgement 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.”
Adeleke, however, is in front of the appellate court and is pleading with it to reverse the earlier ruling. He insists that he won the majority of votes cast during the guber polls.
Oyetota, for his part, had maintained his optimism in the outcome and a potential comeback to the governorship.
Oyetola is contesting the court Tribunal’s decision to absolve Adeleke of certificate falsification in the cross-appeal he filed.
Lateef Fagbemi and Akin Olujimi, both SANs, are arguing against the cross-appeal made by Oyetola and the APC.
They are saying that the Tribunal misdirected itself when it held that the certificate from Atlanta Metropolitan College and a diploma certificate from Penn Foster High School are genuine.
“It is in evidence before the Tribunal that Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice of the Atlanta Metropolitan College is a four-year full time course, in which fact, the Cross-Appellants pleaded in their petition and was admitted by the 2nd Cross-Respondent.
“It is the law that facts admitted need no further proof and it is a presumption which only the 2nd Cross-Respondent could rebut as regards the factual impossibility of obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree within 24 days of obtaining a School Certificate equivalent, thereby casting the onus of proof on him,” Oyetola’s counsel noted.
At the time of this report, PulseNets gathered that tension is high in the state, even as chieftains of the PDP and the APC, as well as allies, are alleged to have arrived in Abuja to attend the delivering of the ruling.
