Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) filed an appeal against a ruling by the tribunal that annulled his election as governor of Osun State, and the Court of Appeal in Abuja started hearing arguments on the case on Monday.
At around ten in the morning, the appeal’s three-judge panel got to work.
In the appeal identified as CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023, Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are the first and second respondents, while Adeleke is the appellant.
In addition, the PDP and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been included as the third and fourth respondents, respectively.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal nullified the July 16, 2022 election that resulted in Adeleke of the PDP being elected governor on January 27.
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After receiving 403,371 votes overall, INEC declared Adeleke the election’s victor.
He was reported to have triumphed in 17 of the state’s 30 local government districts.
But the tribunal, which was presided over by Judge Terste Kume, ruled that the election was unlawful and that Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the APC was the legitimate victor.
The panel ordered INEC to revoke the certificates of return given to Adeleke and his appointed replacement, Kola Adewusi, both of whom had taken their oaths of office.
It still stipulated that Oyetola should get the certificate of return.
The governorship election, according to Judge Kume, was not conducted in accordance with the Nigerian Electoral Act.
The panel further declared that overvoting was a prominent feature of the governorship race.
It said that Oyetola received 314, 921 votes in the election after the extra ballots were subtracted.
Hence, the panel ruled that Oyetola should be reinstated as governor of Osun State.
In early results, INEC said that Oyetola had won the July 16, 2022 gubernatorial election in 13 LGAs with 375,027 votes.
The state’s recently-departed governor, Oyetola, said in his appeal that there were 749 polling places where there were too many votes cast.
He further said Adeleke falsified the academic qualifications he provided to INEC in order to run for office.
Some weeks after the governorship vote, in August 2022, the tribunal started meeting.
With Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and Akin Olujimi, SAN, as their principal attorneys, Oyetola and the APC filed the petition.
