The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State, Newsflash Nigeria reports.
Oyetola is, by his appeal, seeking the reversal of the March 25 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which affirmed Adeleke’s victory in the last governorship election in Osun State.
The Appeal Court had, in its judgement, set aside an earlier judgment by the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which held in favour of Oyetola and sacked Adeleke.
Delivering judgment on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the court of appeal correctly reinstated Adeleke as governor.
The apex court, in its judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, also upheld the Appeal Court’s judgment which upheld the election of Adeleke as the state governor.
The apex court held that the appellant failed to adduce enough evidence to prove his allegation of overvoting in the July 16, 2022 governorship poll.
The judgment is affirmed and adopted by the entire five members of the panel.
According to all the members of the panel, the appeal lacks merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeleke the winner of the poll, saying he scored 403,371 votes to sack Oyetola who was the then incumbent with 375,027.
However, Oyetola and his party had alleged irregularities in the polls and challenged Adeleke’s victory at the Tribunal.
Respite came for the former governor on January 27, 2023 as Justice Tertse Kume who gave the majority judgement upturned Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll.
Justice Kume held that Oyetola scored the majority lawful votes of 314,931 against Adeleke’s 290,266.
But not satisfied with the judgement, Adeleke and the PDP headed to the Court of Appeal, which on March 24 nullified the Tribunal judgment and returned Adeleke as the winner.
Aggrieved with the Appeal Court’s verdict, Oyetola and the PDP headed for the Supreme Court also backed the Appeal Court and upheld Adeleke’s victory.
