The Supreme Court of Nigeria in its verdict on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, affirmed Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared that Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 403,371 votes to defeat the then-incumbent governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress who got 375,027 votes.
But Oyetola and the APC rejected the result of the poll and headed for the tribunal.
The governorship election in the state was held on July 16, 2022.
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, in March, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ruled Governor Adeleke as the winner of the governorship election.
The appellate court nullified the judgment of the election tribunal declaring Oyetola winner of the election.
In the 31 grounds of appeal, Adeleke begged the court for “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal”.
He also sought “an order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit”.
Adeleke submitted that the tribunal exhibited bias when it said: “The second respondent cannot ‘go lo lo lo lo’ and ‘buga won’ as the duly elected governor of Osun state.”
The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices on Friday, held that the appeal the governor lodged to challenge his sacking by the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, was meritorious.
Apart from setting aside the judgement of the tribunal, the court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Mohammed Lawal, awarded N500,000 cost against APC and its candidate, Oyetola.
