The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun said yesterday it will appeal the tribunal judgment that declared Sen. Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the September 2018 rerun governorship election in Osun.
In a statement by the Osun APC director of publicity, research and strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, APC cast doubts on the verdict, noting it will not hold water when contested. “The verdict cannot stand superior legal scrutiny. Therefore we will appeal against it,” the statement said.
The Osun State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Friday, nullified the election of the Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return earlier issued to him as winner of the September 22, Governorship Election. The tribunal in declaring Adeleke as winner of the election also ordered that a new Certificate of Return be issued to Adeleke immediately.
The three man panel led by Justice Ibrahim Sirajo, held that the returning officer, acted ultra vires when he cancelled the election in the first place as he lacked the Constitutional authority to do so. The tribunal held that the supplementary election of September 27 was a product of an illegal cancellation of the results in the seven polling units during the September 22, 2018 main election.
The tribunal, therefore, deducted the votes scored by the APC candidate in the rerun after declaring the rerun illegal. The tribunal said Adeleke won the election at the first ballot on Sept. 22 and the rerun that INEC devised to reach a final conclusion a week later was illegal. “The declaration of Oyetola is null and void,” the tribunal ruled in a majority decision with one member dissenting
INEC had declared the September 22 election inconclusive because the margin between the PDP and APC, 353 votes, is less than the number of registered voters, 3,498, in the seven polling units where elections were cancelled.
The APC candidate in the election, Oyetola, who is the sitting governor; the APC and INEC had filed notices of preliminary objection against the petitions by Adeleke and the PDP on grounds that the petitions were incompetent and the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the petitions. The tribunal dismissed the objections, saying they were misconceived and struck them out
The PDP in Osun has hailed the tribunal’s decision, commending the judiciary on what it called a landmark judgment. Soji Adagunodo, Osun PDP Chairman, in his reaction, said the verdict was a victory for the people of Osun. Adagunodo said the judgment shows that “we still have men of impeccable character in the judiciary.
”Kudos to the Nigerian judiciary and this shows that we still have men of impeccable character in the judiciary. Truly, the judiciary is the last hope of common man,” he said, adding that since the APC had decided to appeal the judgment, PDP would await the outcome at the appellate court.
