The Supreme Court will today, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, gives judgment in the appeal brought by a former Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, contesting the ruling of the Appeal Court in the Governorship Election conducted in the State in Nov. 16, 2022.
Oyetola is seeking a reversal of the judgment of the Appeal Court on March 25, which upturned the earlier decision of the Federal Election Tribunal and ruled in favour of Ademola Adeleke, who is now the incumbent governor of the state.
The five-member panel of the Supreme Court, on Monday, fixed the judgement date for Tuesday, May 9, after taking arguments from the two parties in the case.
It would be recalled that On Sunday, July 23, Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged the winner of the state governorship election, beating Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He polled 402,979 votes, while Oyetola, then the governor, scored 375,077 votes.
Adeleke won in 17 local government areas of the state, including Olorunda, Ede South, Orolu, Osogbo, Odo Otin, Ifelodun, Atakumosa, and Ila, the pioneer National Chairman of the ruling APC, Bisi Akande is from Ila LGA. Oyetola won in 13 local government areas including Iwo, Ayedaade, Ife South and Ife East. The election took place in all the 30 local government areas of the state with 3,763 polling units and 332 registration areas.
Based on the results, the INEC Returning Officer of the election, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe declared Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke of PDP the winner, having satisfied the requirements of the law.
Osun’s Immediate past governor, ISIAKA Oyetola
An epic legal battle over the July 17, 2022 declaration of Adeleke as winner of the election, however commenced when the then governor of the state, Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola sought to upturn the victory verdict of the governor-elect, Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke in a Petition filed to the Tribunal on August 5, 2022.
In the 669 pages Petition filed by Oyetola and his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Adeleke and PDP as First, Second and Third Respondents respectively, was premised on the facts that Adeleke was not qualified to contest the election in the first place, even as they discovered discrepancies in the election process.
Represented by 38 Lawyers, out of which 12 were Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) Oyetola and the APC had avered that Adeleke was, at the time of the election, held on Saturday, July 16, 2022, not qualified to contest the election, just as he was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast, therefore making his election invalid on the ground that he failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act of 2022.
The Legal team lined up by the Petitioners which was led by Prince Lateef O. Fagbemi (SAN), also avered that Adeleke did not have the requisite “educational qualification to contest the election to the office of Governor of Osun State for having presented forged certificates to INEC.”
According to them, ” the Diploma certificate of Penn Foster High School purportedly awarded to Adeleke on the 16th day of July, 2021 and submitted by him to INEC along with his Form EC9 was forged”.
But despite the legal fireworks, the Appeal Court on March 25, 2023, ruled that Adeleke actually won the Governorship Election as declare by INEC.
Former governor Oyetola, consequently, took the matter to the Supreme Court, a development that forms the basis for today’s judgement by the apex Court.
