Beta News Reports Your reliable news platfor
Related Articles
See Reasons Why Supreme Court Declares Adeleke Winner of Osun Governorship Election
By Adunola Aderemi,
A five-member panel of Justices led by Justice John Inyang Okoro have declared Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke as the winner of Osun Governorship July 16, 2022 election.
Delivering judgment in the appeal by former governor, Gboyega Oyetola on Tuesday, the five-member panel held that the appeal lacked “any scintilla of merit.”
The Judges at the Abuja Division of the Supreme Court based on the submission set aside the Osun governorship election petition appeal judgment, contested by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
The reasons from the instituted case is as follows:
-The panel led by Justice John Inyang Okoro held that Oyetola and the APC failed to prove allegations of non-accreditation of voters in 744 polling units with the BVAS, resulting in over-voting.
– The decision of the Supreme Court was 5-0, as all of the Justices aligned with the leading judgment delivered by Lord Justice AGIM.
– The Supreme Court dismissed the Appeal of the APC and Oyetola for lack of merit, affirms Adeleke’s victory.
– The Supreme Court held that the Election Petitions Tribunal breached Adeleke’s rights to fair hearing and its decision is thus a nullity.
Supreme Court held that Adeleke’s qualification is settled and no case of forgery is established against him.
– The Supreme Court also held that Principal Witness 1 presented by the appellants as an expert relied on hearsay evidence, and his opinion is therefore not admissible. Thus, the appellants did not discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law
– The panel also unanimously held that the failure of the election tribunal in Osun to consider the preliminary objections raised by Adeleke and the PDP at the trial level rendered the entire proceeding a nullity.
-Similarly the Supreme Court held that Register of Voters is very cardinal to the process of accreditation and as such, over-voting cannot be proved without it.
-The Court established that Oyetola failed to prove over-voting in his Appeal, as the BVAS machines are the basis for proving over-voting.
It can be recalled that the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke, was returned elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission, but the APC candidate at the poll, Adegboyega Oyetola, rejected the result and approached the Election Petition Tribunal to challenge it.
The Independent National Electoral Commissionm had declared that Adeleke polled 403,371 votes, to defeat then incumbent governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, who got 375,027 votes.
But Oyetola and the APC rejected the result of the poll and headed for the tribunal.
In its January 27, 2023 majority verdict, the Justice Tertse Kume-led tribunal annulled Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll.
However, a minority judgment by Justice B. Ogbuli affirmed Adeleke as the winner of the poll.
Displeased, Adeleke and the PDP headed for the Court of Appeal, which on March 24 nullified the tribunal judgment and returned Adeleke as winner.
Oyetola and the PDP, who were disastified with the judgment, then headed for the Supreme Court, which held the matter and having listened to the briefs and address by the parties, perused the evidence before it and gave it’s judgement by declaring Governor Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke as the substantive Governor of Osun State.
