The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Gboyega Oyetola as governor of Osun State.
The apex court dismissed the appeal of Senator Ademola Adeleke challenging the declaration of Oyetola as the winner of the Osun State governorship election. The Supreme Court in a split judgement on Friday agreed substantially with the Court of Appeal which ruled that a majority judgement delivered at the tribunal was a nullity.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in September 2018 declared Oyetola winner of the Osun governorship election after a controversial rerun. INEC said Oyetola polled 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate scored 255,023 votes. Adeleke led the APC candidate with 353 votes after polling 254,698 to 254,345 at the end of the first round of the election on September 22.
Unsatisfied with INEC’s declaration, Ademola Adeleke of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, filed a petition against Oyetola of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the tribunal. The tribunal ruled that INEC was wrong to have ordered a rerun election. It nullified the rerun. The court also ruled that INEC did not comply with its guidelines on results from 17 polling units.
The tribunal then deducted the results of both parties from the declared total of votes in the affected 17 polling units and declared PDP winner of the election with 254,698 votes to APC’s with 253,452 votes. The tribunal declared Adeleke winner of the election in March. Oyetola appealed the verdict of the tribunal. In May, the appeal court nullified Adeleke and declared Oyetola as the winner of the election. Adeleke then petitioned the apex court
Although the majority of justices on the seven-man panel of the court dismissed the appeal of Senator Adeleke challenging the declaration of Oyetola as the winner of the election, two Supreme Court justices, Kumai Akaas and Paul Galinje, dissented with the majority decision and accused INEC of rigging the Osun governorship election in favor of Oyetola.
In a minority decision, Justices Akaas and Galinje argued that the courts should have given attention to the controversy over the rerun polls. Akaas said INEC had no cogent reason to have conducted a rerun.
“INEC is supposed to be an umpire, not a partisan group. For INEC to have pronounced the election inconclusive showed that it had something up its sleeves. And it achieved that through the rerun,” said Justice Akaas.
The majority ruled that the judge who issued the majority decision at the Osun election tribunal, Peter Obiora, was absent on February 6, 2019, when a major discussion on non-compliance was tabled before the tribunal and could therefore not have viewed the issue objectively. Disagreeing, Justice Galinje said although the absence of Obiora should result in the nullification of the judgement of the election tribunal, “the only way to affirm that was by producing the original court records.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari Friday commended the ruling of the Supreme Court in favor of Oyetola. “This Supreme Court decision lays to rest the tussle over the governorship of Osun State,” Buhari tweeted. The president said the judgement “removes all encumbrances on the path of the governor from fully delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of the State.”
In a related development, Adeleke on Friday conceded defeat and congratulated governor Oyetola on his victory at the Supreme Court. “As a Democrat and law abiding citizen, I accept the ruling no matter my misgivings,” Adeleke’s spokesman, Olawale Rasheed, said in a statement. I wish Governor Oyetola well in the governance of Osun state,” he added.
The PDP presidential candidate in the Feb 23 election, former vice president Atiku Abubakar; a staunch critic of the Buhari administration extended his gratitude to those who stood by Adeleke during his tough times. “I join with people of goodwill all over Nigeria to say to Senator Ademola Adeleke, and the people of the great state of Osun, that we stand with them in good times and in difficult days.”
According to Atiku, the law has declared its verdict and nothing can be done about it. He, however, advised the judiciary to ensure they carry out their responsibility in fairness, regardless of the external pressure. “The Supreme Court has ruled and because of its judicial finality, the legal case is over. Finally, I urge the nation’s judiciary to take a pulse of the nation and reflect it. In their hands, God has placed a great responsibility. The duty to ensure that justice is done, irrespective of the pressure to do otherwise, by the powers that be.”
