Supreme Court Affirms Adeleke As Governor Of Osun State

The Supreme Court on Tuesday voided the petition filed by the former governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola in which he challenged the July 16, 2022 election of Senator Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke as governor of the state.

The Court in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, turned down the entire petition by Oyetole on the ground that it was predicated on unfounded allegations and hearsays evidence that have no probate values.

The apex Court therefore held that Oyetola, who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the election, failed woefully to discharge the onus placed on him in all his allegations.

Similarly, the Court of Policy, held that the allegations of improper accreditation of voters and over voting in 744 polling units across 10 Local Government Areas of the state, were not only spurious but bereft of merit as they lacked cogent and verifiable evidence to establish the allegations.

The Supreme Court declared that it was surprising that the petitioner (Oyetola), who laid the foundation of his case on over-voting neglected and failed to produce the voter registers of the disputed polling 744 polling units to prove the allegation.

Accordingly, the apex Court held that Oyetole made a heavy weather on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as source of his claim of improper accreditation and over voting but, failed to produce a single machine to support his allegation.

The Court noted that instead, the petitioner resorted to the use of back end server to establish his case upon the discovery that it was impossible to back up allegations of over voting.

The Supreme Court Justices said that Oyetola somersaulted when he engaged his own former Personal Assistant and member of the APC, dressed him as a forensic expert and presented him as a witness during the trial of the petition, stressing that Oyetola presented a tainted witness as an expert whose evidence goes to no where to support his cause of action.

Justice Agim said; “To worsen the situation, the purported forensic expert admitted not having requisite background of what he was asked to do before the tribunal and instead relied on hearsays while giving evidence”.

The Supreme Court gave knocks to the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal for its failure to determine the preliminary objection against the jurisdiction of the tribunal on various issues, stressing that it ended up denying the respondents in the petition fair hearing.

Furthermore, the apex Court said that the case of Oyetola and the evidence adduced failed the provisions of section 47 (2) of the Evidence Act and section 18 of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC Regulations.

The Supreme Court Justices unanimously resolved all issues in dispute in favour of Adeleke and other respondents in the matter.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja had earlier nullified the findings of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the declaration of Adeleke as the elected governor.

Oyetola had in his appeal to the Supreme Court prayed the Apex Court to set aside the decision of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which voided the judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal, which returned him as winner of the July 16, 2022 governorship election.

The appeal filed on Oyetola’s behalf by his lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, was marked: SC/ CV/510/2023 and SC/ CV/511/2023.