The dispute as to who is the duly elected governor of Osun state has finally been settled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria but with far-reaching implications
Delivering judgment in the appeal filed by Gboyega Oyetola, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a five-member panel of the apex court affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as the governor.
Among several issues raised by Oyetola and the APC, the focal point of their case was over-voting.
They contended that the presiding officers who conducted the elections in 744 polling units across the state “did not comply with the Electoral Act, INEC regulations, guidelines and manuals in that they did not use the BVAS to accredit and verify voters in many of the polling units or did not properly accredit voters”.
The resultant effect according to the appellant was that there was over-voting in that the number of votes recorded in the polling unit result sheet (form EC8A) were more than the number of voters accredited, verified and recorded in the BVAS of the corresponding polling units.
However, the appellants failed to prove their case of over-voting.
INEC IS NOT BOUND TO ELECTRONICALLY TRANSMIT RESULTS
Notably, the apex court emphasised that there is no law that requires presiding officers to transmit by BVAS the number of accredited voters or accreditation of the polls to the database or backend server of INEC as claimed by the appellants.
“Therefore, the case of the appellants that the presiding officers were bound to instantly or on-the-spot transmit the number of accredited voters in the BVAS to the backend server or database of INEC has no support,” Emmanuel Agim who read the lead judgment said.
A federal high court in Abuja — in a January 23 ruling — dismissed a suit filed by the Labour Party (LP) seeking to compel the INEC to adopt an electronic method for transmitting 2023 election results.
Emeka Nwite, presiding judge, held that the commission is at liberty to pick any method of transmitting election results.