On Monday, the Appeal Court reserved its judgment on the case brought by Senator Ademola Adeleke, which sought to overturn the ruling of an election petition tribunal that overturned his victory in the Osun governorship election.
After hearing arguments and adopting the briefs of all parties to the lawsuit, a three-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu set a date for deciding the issue.
Onyechi Ikpeazu, Adeleke’s attorney, stated during today’s proceedings that a member of the panel who is also a chief magistrate did not express her opinion during the delivery of the judgment. Instead, she merely signed, and the constitution requires her to have expressed her opinions regarding the suit.
Lateef Fagbemi, Mr. Oyetola’s legal counsel, ruled, however, that the judgment is not invalid simply because it was signed and no further comments were made.
He added that the case of over-voting occurred in 744 polling units across the state, exceeding the six polling units claimed by the Appellant.
An Over Voting Debate Senator Adeleke, the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate, had won the aforementioned election on July 16, 2022, but the result was invalidated due to overvoting.
In February, Adeleke filed an appeal against the Osun State Governorship Tribunal’s decision to invalidate his election.
Gboyega Oyetola, a former governor of the state, received the favorable ruling from the tribunal. Oyetola demonstrated that there was over-voting in some polling units, according to two members of the tribunal’s three-member panel during the judgment.
However, Adeleke was quick to reject the decision, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.” The governor appealed to the Court of Appeal’s Akure division a few weeks later.
Adeleke requested “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal” in the 31 grounds of appeal she filed on Wednesday.
“an order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit,” the governor also requested.
The governor stated, “The second respondent cannot “go lo lo lo” and “buga won” as the duly elected governor of Osun state.”