The Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke over the judgment of the election petition tribunal which annulled his election.<\/p>\n
The appeal is marked CA\/AK\/EPT\/GOV\/01\/2023. While former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are joined as 1st and 2nd respondents, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are joined as 3rd and 4th respondents respectively. Aside from Adeleke\u2019s appeal, the Court of Appeal is also expected to sit on other appeals filed by INEC, PDP and Oyetola.<\/p>\n
The three-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu informed the parties after hearing arguments on the matter that a date for the judgment would be communicated to them by the court.<\/p>\n
Adeleke\u2019s legal team led by the go-to election petition trial lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN had on February 9, 2023 filed 31 grounds of appeal against the January 27, 2023 split judgment of the tribunal which sparked widespread protests especially in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.<\/p>\n
The tribunal voided the July 16, 2022 election that produced Adeleke as the elected governor and ordered INEC to issue a Certificate of Return to Oyetola as the duly elected governor. A member of the three-man panel however disagreed, delivering a dissenting judgment.<\/p>\n
INEC also sharply disagreed with the tribunal and filed an unprecedented 44 grounds of appeal against the judgment. In a Notice of Appeal signed by its Lead Counsel, Prof. Paul Ananaba SAN, the commission stated that the judgment of the tribunal was riddled with \u201cerror in law\u201d and \u201cwant of competence and jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
INEC urged the Appeal Court to set aside the whole judgment of the tribunal, arguing that \u201cThe judgement of the lower Tribunal is against the weight of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
It urged the appeal court to \u201cAllow the Appeal\u201d and sought \u201cAn Order dismissing and\/or striking out the Petition for want of competence and jurisdiction\u201d as well as \u201cAn Order dismissing the Petition of the 1 and 2nd Respondents in this Appeal as lacking in merit with substantial cost.\u201d Oyetola and APC are 1st and 2nd respondents while Adeleke and the PDP were joined by INEC as 3rd and 4th respondents.<\/p>\n
On his part, Adeleke described the tribunal\u2019s judgment as a \u201cmiscarriage of justice\u201d and prayed for \u201can order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal\u201d. The governor also sought \u201can order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit\u201d.<\/p>\n
While the tribunal had in a statement which attracted heated public debate held that Adeleke \u201ccannot \u2018go lo lo lo lo\u2019 and \u2018buga won\u2019 as the duly elected governor of Osun state,\u201d the appellant stated in his Notice of Appeal that \u201cThe tribunal, in its judgment, erred in law and displayed bias against the appellant when it made reference to the appellant\u2019s dance at his inauguration as governor of Osun state which was never an issue before the lower tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy referring to the appellant\u2019s personal eccentricity for dancing, the lower tribunal derided and mocked him in a manner suggesting that it was biased against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appearance of bias, manifested in the reference to the Appellant\u2019s proclivity for dancing and particularly the Buga song, has rendered the decision of the lower Tribunal a nullity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tribunal in its judgment erred in law in returning the 1st respondent as the duly elected candidate without due regard to the enormity of the voters in the units where the results were cancelled for overvoting.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the hearing of the appeal, Ikpeazu argued that the tribunal did not base its judgment on the data on INEC\u2019s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and the certified extracts which gave a clear lead to Adeleke even if some polling unit results were cancelled. He also argued that a member of the tribunal did not read her judgment as required by Nigeria\u2019s Constitution and the rules of court.<\/p>\n
But Fagbemi countered Ikpeazu, saying that the typed document of the judgement stated the decision of the court, adding that \u201cOur position has always been that not all registered voters were accredited by BVAS.\u201d<\/p>\n
INEC had on Sunday, July 17, 2022 declared Adeleke as the winner of the Osun State Governorship Election, having won in 17 of the 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state. Oyetola won in the remaining 13 LGAs.<\/p>\n
While Adeleke polled 403,371 votes to defeat his APC rival and then incumbent governor, Oyetola polled 375,027 votes, showing a difference of about 44,426 votes in the hotly contested election which had 15 governorship candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke over the judgment of the election petition tribunal which annulled his election. The appeal is marked CA\/AK\/EPT\/GOV\/01\/2023. While former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are joined as 1st and 2nd respondents, the Independent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t