By: Salako Tijani
Osun State Election Petition Tribunal has pronounced Gboyega Oyetola as the winner of gubernatorial election held in July 16, 2022 as the petition immediately ordered Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of return issued to senator Adeleke.
Earlier, INEC had declared Governor Adeleke, the candidate of PDP as the winner of July 16, Osun State gubernatorial election after he was adjudged to have polled 403,107 votes as against, the candidate of APC Gboyega Oyetola who polled 373, 000 votes.
Meanwhile, Oyetola approached the court after the declaration seeking the cancellation of Governor Adeleke’s victory on the ground of election manipulation, certificate forgery and over voting.
The chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Tertsea Kume approved Oyetola’s petition, establishing that the election was conducted with substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law.
He said after deducting invalid votes from lawful vote, the first petitioner, Oyetola polled 314,931 while the second despondent, Adeleke polled 290,266 votes.
Justice Kume, however ordered the INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to senator Adeleke.
Earlier, justice Kume had held that Senator Adeleke was as at the time of the election qualified to contest.
In a dissenting judgement, Justice Benefit Ogbuli, disagreed with the majority judgement delivered by the chairman saying that the petitioners’ case has not been satisfactorily proved and hereby dismissed.
Counsel for the petitioners, Saka Layonu, SAN, commended the panel for delivering the judgement promptly and in favour of his clients.
Meanwhile, the counsel to PDP and Adeleke told the panel that, there were two judgements and both the petitioners and respondents have the right of appeal.
