“….. the defences of the respondents are plagued with fundamental mortal flaws highly irreconcilable and unreliable, incapable of defeating the credible evidence tendered by the petitioner in respect of 744 polling units where over voting has been established. The inference, we hereby draw from the facts established by the evidence on record is that the election conducted on July 16, 2022, was done in substantial non-compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act 2022 (Supra) and the extant regulations….”
– Hon Justice T.A Kume, Chairman, Osun State Governorship Election Petition while delivering judgement on Friday, January 27, 2023
After barely sixty days at the helm of affairs as governor of Osun State, the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo has nullified the election of Governor Ademola Adeleke. He is the second Osun governor to have had his election nullified. The first was former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the Peoples Democratic Party whose election was nullified by the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan on November 26, 2010. That judgement paved the way for Governor Rauf Aregbesola, then of the Action Congress of Nigeria, to be sworn in on November 27, 2010.
In a split decision of 2:1, the Hon. Justice T.A. Kume-led Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal reversed the results of the July 16, 2022 governorship election and declared Gboyega Oyetola as the winner of the election. The tribunal directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Ademola Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusi of the Peoples Democratic Party, both of whom had been sworn in. The panel led by Justice Terste Kume directed that the certificate of return should instead be issued to Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress. The tribunal held that the governorship election was not held in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 as it was characterised by over-voting. It said after deducting the excessive votes, the figure Adeleke polled came down to 290,666: lower than the 314,921 polled by Oyetola.
