Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Governor of Osun, Gboyega Oyetola was on Thursday pronounced winner of the Osun Governorship election by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja.
The Court in its judgment, set aside the election petition tribunal judgment that pronounced the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s candidate, Ademola Adeleke winner of the September 2018 governorship poll in the state.
In a 4-1 verdict, the court described the proceedings of the governorship tribunal and its judgment as null and void.
In her lead Judgment, Justice Jummai Sankey, disclosed that it was wrong for Justice Peter Obiora to deliver the majority judgment that sacked Oyetola since he did not attend proceedings of the tribunal before the actual judgment.
Sankey averred that the petition lodged by the PDP candidate before the governorship election petition tribunal was incompetent.
According to the verdict, Adeleke and his party failed to convince the court that the September 27, 2019 re-run poll that led to the victory of the APC’s candidate was marred by over voting and irregularities and that PDP and its candidate also failed to prove that the re-run was conducted with noncompliance to the Electoral Act.
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According to the court, the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to make available the ballot papers as well as the record of accreditation to disprove allegation in the petition did not affect election’s result.
Accordingly, the court allowed the appeal of the APC and its candidate and set aside the decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Nevertheless, Justice George Mbaba, a member of the panel disagreed with the lead verdict while three other members, Justices Isaiah Akeju, Bitrus and Sanga, Abubakar agreed with the verdict.
In the dissent judgment, Mbamba said the allegation that Justice Obiora did not attend all the sessions of the Tribunal was speculative.
He held that the records of the Tribunal’s proceedings indicated that the judge did participate in all the hearings because he signed at the beginning of the days’ proceedings.
On that basis, he dismissed Oyetola’s appeal and in addition awarded a cost of N200,000 against him.
