Osun Tribunal Sacks Adeleke; Declares Oyetola Winner

The Osun State Governorship, Election Petition Tribunal, has invalidated Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the July 16 governorship election of 2022. The three-person panel presided over by Justice Tertsea Kume rendered the verdict.

TheCable

By a vote of two to one, the Tribunal ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, should cancel the Certificate of Return given to Senator Ademola Adeleke and give it to former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola instead. Justice Tertse Kume, the chairman, read the majority decision. According to him, Oyetola received 314,931 legitimate votes to Adeleke’s 219,666 for the majority.

Ademola Adeleke, Davido’s uncle, disagrees with the Tribunal’s decision and criticized how the overvoting issue was resolved in favor of Mr. Oyetola, calling it “an unfair interpretation against the will of the majority of voters” from his rural home in Ede. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, the governor called it a miscarriage of justice.

The statement read: “The Executive Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has described the judgment of the governorship tribunal as” a miscarriage of justice,” vowing to challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal.”

On July 16, 2022, INEC announced Adeleke as the winner of the Osun governorship election.

Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, the University of Lagos’ Vice Chancellor and the election’s returning officer declared that Adeleke won with 403,371 votes, defeating the incumbent Oyetola, who received 375,027 votes, in the hotly contested race. Oyetola finished second in the election after winning 13 of the state’s Local Government Areas.