Supreme Court Judgement: Ademola Adeleke Affirmed As Osun State Governor

The Supreme Court has affirmed Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the validly elected Governor of Osun State.

The apex court, in its lead judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, dismissed an appeal that was lodged against Adeleke’s election victory by the former governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola, who was the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

It held that though Oyetola alleged that Adeleke won through over-voting that occurred in 774 polling units in the state, he, however, failed to produce any Bimordial Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, a machine that was used in the polling units to prove his allegation.

The apex court held that since it was not in dispute that the BVAS contain a record of accredited voters, “it is therefore, the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on election day”.

It held that nothing in either Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18- 23 of the INEC’s Regulations, made it mandatory for Presiding Officers in an election to transmit by BVAS, the number of accredited voters in each polling unit to the backend server. It dismissed evidence of purported expert witnesses that testified in Oyeyola’s favour.

It will be recalled that the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on January 27, in a split decision, voided the declaration of Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the winner of the gubernatorial election.

The Justice Tertsea Kume-led three-member panel tribunal, in its majority verdict, upheld a petition that was brought before it by the former governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who came second in the election.

Meanwhile, following an appeal that was lodged by Adeleke and the PDP, the Court of Appeal, on March 24, reversed the judgment of the tribunal. The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, held that there was merit in Adeleke’s appeal.

Aside from setting aside the judgement of the tribunal, the court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu, awarded a cost of N500,000 against the APC and its candidate, Gboyega Oyetola. Not satisfied with the judgement, Oyetola took the matter before the Supreme Court, where he has lost.