The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has today, Friday, set aside the judgment of the Tribunal judgment that nullified the election of Ademola Adeleke as Osun State Governor.
A three–member panel of Justices of the Appellate court led by Justice Mohamed Lawal, in a judgment, affirm Adeleke’s appeal meritoriously.
Justice Mohamed Lawal Shuaibu, who delivered the judgment held that “This appeal is meritorious and it is hereby allowed. The judgment of the lower tribunal delivered on January 27, 2023, is hereby set aside”, the court held and awarded a cost of N500, 000 each against the first and second respondents.
Adeleke, and his party, had prayed the appellate court to set aside the verdict of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked him from office.
It is remembered that on January 27, Justice Tertsea Kume led a three-member panel tribunal, in a split decision of two-to-one, and voided the declaration of Adeleke as the winner of the governorship election held on July 16, 2022.
In the majority judgment, the tribunal upheld a petition filed by the former governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who came second in the poll.
It held that Adeleke did not score the majority of lawful votes, adding that the conduct of the election was not in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
According to the tribunal, the petitioners, Oyetola and APC, successfully established that there was overvoting in 744 polling units in the state.
After removing the said invalid votes, the tribunal declared Oyetola as the winner of the governorship contest and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return it earlier issued to Adeleke.
Nonetheless, in his dissenting judgment, the third member of the panel, Justice P. Agbuli, affirmed Adeleke as the valid winner of the election and struck out the petition that was lodged by Oyetola and the APC.
Dissatisfied with the majority decision that sacked him from office, governor Adeleke took the case before the Court of Appeal where his mandate has been given back to him.