There was jubilation across Osun State on Friday as the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja nullified the victory of Adegboyega Oyetola as the governor of the state.
The three-man tribunal in a split judgment of two-to-one declared the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ademola Adeleke as the winner of the September 2018 election.
The tribunal, through its majority judgment, nullified the certificate of return issued to Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress by the Independent National Electoral Commission and ordered the commission to issue a fresh one to Adeleke.
The tribunal, which had earlier dismissed the preliminary objection filed against the PDP and Adeleke’s petition, stated that the petitioners failed to prove the allegations of over-voting in many polling units during the September 22, 2018 election.
It also held that the petitioners’ complaints of corrupt practices and violent disruption of voting and disenfranchisement of voters during the September 27, 2018 run-off were not proved.
But the tribunal, in its majority judgment, went ahead to uphold the petition on the grounds that the petitioners successfully proved that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 in the conduct of the September 27, 2018 run-off in 17 polling units.
Dissenting, the Chairman, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, in his minority judgment dismissed the petition filed by Adeleke and the PDP for lacking in merit.
But Justice Peter Obiora, who read the lead majority judgment, and Justice Ayinla Gbolagunte, who agreed, upheld the petition.
The judgment lasted for over five hours.
The majority judgment nullified the September 27, 2018 supplementary election after declaring it illegal and declared Adeleke the winner of the poll based on the outcome of the September 22, 2018 election.
