Yesterday, the Supreme Court being “the judicial final bus stop” has put an end to the back and forth surrounding the July 16th 2022 governorship election that took place in Osun state and displaced Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of the APC, the then-incumbent governor and brought in Senator Ademola Adeleke, the dancing Senator of the opposition party (PDP) to power.
After INEC declared Senator Adeleke of the PDP the winner of the July 16th 2022 election and duly issued him with the certificate of return, Oyetola of the APC being dissatisfied with the declaration by the INEC went straight to the election petition tribunal and filed his petition, praying the tribunal to hold that Adeleke has not been duly elected, alleging that there was over voting ie the number of those who voted is higher than the number of the registered voters in the INEC database; therefore, the court should withdraw the certificate of return that was issued to Senator Adeleke and be reissued to him and the court should therefore declare him (Oyetola) as the duly elected governor of the state.
The election petition tribunal on 27th of July, 2023 in a split decision upheld the prayers of Oyetola and his party, the APC and held that there was truly over voting and that Adeleke has not been duly elected, the court voided the declaration of Adeleke as the governor-elect and ordered that the certificate of return that was issued to Adeleke be withdrawn and be reissued to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of the state.
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Senator Adeleke and his party, the PDP obviously displeased with the 27th January 2023 decision of the Osun state election petition tribunal went straight to the court of appeal; he immediately appealed the judgment of the lower court and also filed for a stay of execution of judgment so as the certificate of return issued to him will not be withdrawn.
The court of appeal while reversing the judgment of the election petition tribunal, in its judgment delivered on March 24th 2023 held that the allegation of Oyetola and the APC which formed the basis of their appeal been that there was an overvoting during the election has not been properly substantiated by Oyetalo. He has not provided enough evidence to prove the allegations of overvoting. He only relied on testamentary evidence of party agents and INEC staff which is clearly not enough to prove beyond every atom of doubt that there was an over-voting which ushered Adeleke to power.
Oyetola and the APC having lost at the court of appeal went straight to appeal at the Supreme Court for the Supreme Court to put the final end to the back and fought. The Supreme Court yesterday, the 9th of May, 2023 upheld the judgment of the court of appeal which reversed the judgment of the election tribunal. The Supreme Court in delivering its judgment stated inter Alia thus; “It is glaring that the Appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS, but sought to prove over-voting by means of a report of examination of INEC’s database or backend server…”.
The Supreme Court upheld and affirmed Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
Congratulations to the dancing Senator and congratulations to the good people of Osun state.