The legal battle to determine the true winner of the Osun State Governorship Election held on July 16, 2023, has been moved to the Appellant Court with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), appealing the judgement of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal Judgement which annulled the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke and declared the erstwhile governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola as the winner of the election.
In the Notice of Appeal dated Monday, January 30, 2023, filed before the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, INEC listed 44 grounds of appeal and demanded the court to set aside the judgement of the Tribunal and dismiss the petition filed by All Progressives Congress (APC), and its candidate, Adegboyega Oyetola, for lacking in merit.
Also in the Notice of Appeal signed by counsel to INEC, Prof. Paul Ananaba (SAN) and 17 others, the Commission challenged the decision of the Tribunal because the panel erred in law by claiming that Adeleke did not score the majority of the lawful votes, saying the petitioners only called two witnesses who did not prove that the PDP candidate did not win the election.
The INEC also said the Tribunal erred in law by using a table contained in the final written address of the petitioners to determine overvoting and deducted votes scored by the respondent.
The electoral body also dismissed the Tribunal’s claim that because it issued different accreditation reports, its conduct was tantamount to tampering with official documents.
It also said the allegation that it tampered with the official records was a criminal allegation that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, noting that there was no proof it tampered with any records before the panel.
It would be recalled that on January 27, 2023, the Osun State Governorship Tribunal led by Justice Tertsea Kume nullified Adeleke’s victory at July 16 poll on the ground of electoral malpractices.
The Tribunal ruled that the over-voting established in 744 polling units at the poll gave Adeleke victory over Oyetola and after the deduction of the over-voting, it declared that Oyetola had the highest number of the vote cast.
A minority judgement delivered by Justice A. Ogbuli disagreed with the majority judgement thereby dismissing APC’s petition and upholding Adeleke’s victory at the poll.
