The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 9 May, 2023, in Abuja affirmed Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the elected Governor of Osun State.
Oyetola and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) approached the Apex Court in a suit numbered, SC/CV/510/2023, praying the court to set aside the decision of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which voided the judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal, which returned Oyetola as winner of the Saturday, 16 July, 2022 governorship election.
Oyetola and APC in their case filed to Supreme Court on their behalf by lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), want the Apex Court to determine whether the Appellate Court was right “in declaring as nullity the judgment of the tribunal delivered on January 27 notwithstanding the earlier resolution of the same court that Section 294(1) of the Constitution is inapplicable to a tribunal”.
INEC had in 2022 declared Adeleke as winner of the 16 July governorship election having scored a majority of the votes cast in the election. The tribunal in its split judgment of two-to-one delivered in January, held that Oyetola and not Adeleke won a majority of the lawful votes in the election.
Oyetola and his party, approached the three-member tribunal panel to challenge the victory of Adeleke on the ground that there was over-voting.
Justice Tertsea Kume led-tribunal, had on January 27, in a split decision of two-to-one, voided the declaration of Adeleke as winner of the governorship election that held on July 16, 2022.
Source: Tribune
