The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
Delivering the judgment on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court set aside the appeal by Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the victory of Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
The judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, held that the court of appeal correctly reinstated Adeleke as governor.
According to all the members of the panel, the appeal lacked merit.
The apex court held that the appellant failed to adduce enough evidence to prove the allegation of overvoting in the July 16, 2022 governorship poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeleke the winner of the poll with a total of 403,371 votes, defeating Oyetola who was the then incumbent with 375,027.
The tribunal arrived at the decision citing overvoting in PDP strongholds. After deductions were made, they declared Oyetola the winner of the election.
Not satisfied with the judgment, Adeleke and the PDP headed to the Court of Appeal.
On March 24, a three-man panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu, the Court of Appeal quashed the tribunal’s judgment and gave its verdict to uphold Adeleke as the rightful governor of Osun State.
Aggrieved with the Appeal Court’s verdict, Oyetola and the APC took the matter to the Supreme Court, which also backed the Appeal Court judgment and upheld Adeleke’s victory
Ismail Aniemu, Publisher of JournalNG and ghostwriter, is a maritime journalist with over two decades of practice and a multidisciplinary background. He holds a master’s degree in Transport Management from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology(LAUTECH) with a bias toward logistics. He is also an alumnus of the Times Journalism Institute where he obtained a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
