A’Court restores Adeleke’s victory, grants Obi’s plea on Tinubu

BY ANDREW OROLUA

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday set aside the decision of Osun State governorship election tribunal and restored the election victory of Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun State.

It voided the judgment of the election tribunal which sacked Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun State , meanwhile former Gov.Adegboyega Oyetola through his lawyer said they will challenge the decision.

A three member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu held that the tribunal erred in law in arriving at it’s decision that Adeleke was not lawfully elected as governor in the July 16, 2022 governorship election in Osun State.

Adeleke the candidate of People Democratic Party, PDP, had on February 9, appealed the judgment of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal which nullified his election on grounds of alleged over voting.

Recalls that the tribunal in a two-to-one decision had on January held that the petitioners; the immediate past Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, proved their case of non-compliance and over voting in some polling units in favour of Adeleke and his party (PDP).

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Tertsea Kume, who read the majority judgment had disclosed that the excess votes were deducted following which Oyetola won the election.

Specifically Justice Kume, noted that after deducting the over-voting figure, Oyetola scored 314,921, while Ademola polled 290,266 votes.

Justice Kume subsequently ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke and issue a fresh one to Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.

Dissatisfied, Adeleke had in his 31 grounds of appeal argued that the tribunal erred in law in holding that Oyetola was the lawful governor-elect at the July 16, 2022 Guber election and subsequently prayed the Court of Appeal for “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal”.

In the appeal: marked CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023, the appellant had listed Oyetola, APC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 1st to 4th respondents respectively.

Delivering judgment in the appeal on Friday, the appellate court in a unanimous judgment held that tribunal was wrong when in holding that there was over voting in some polling units when such allegations were not proved.

According to the panel, before a case of over voting can be established, the person making the allegation must present the Voter’s Register, the Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) – which contains the information of accredited voters, votes cast in each polling units, results as entered into the forms EC8A amongst others.

Court of Appeal further faulted Oyetola and the APC for hinging their allegation of over voting on only information they obtained from a secondary source (INEC back-end server report).

Faulting further the tribunal’s decision on over voting, the three justices in their separate judgments pointed out that the failure of the Oyetola and APC to call witnesses especially polling agents who witnessed the voting was fatal to their case.

On the issue of jurisdiction raised by the appellant, Justice Shuaibu while observing that the law allows the tribunal to suspend decisions on Preliminary Objections until the end of the matter, faulted the tribunal for not showing in writing that it considered Adeleke’s preliminary objection in its merit.

Regarding Adeleke’s qualification to contest the July 16 2022 Guber election, the panel held that the tribunal was right in holding that Adeleke was qualified to contest the election adding that allegations of supplying false and forged documents must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, which the 1st and 2nd respondents failed to prove.

Similarly, the appellate court added that since the Court of Appeal had since ruled that Adeleke was qualified, until a higher court rules otherwise, that is the position of the law.

However, the panel disagreed with Adeleke that the majority judgment was a nullity because the second judge on the panel, Justice Rabi Bashir, failed to write her opinion as required by Section 294(2) of the Constitution.

According to Justice Shuaibu, there is no law that mandates the judge to write a separate opinion, adding that the signature of the second judge appended in the face of the tribunal’s judgment document was enough evidence that she agreed with the lead judgment.

Similarly, the panel held that Adeleke failed to prove his allegation of bias against the tribunal.

Justice Shuaibu stated that although Justice Kume’s comments on Adeleke’s proclivity for dancing and particularly the Buga song, is “unwarranted and condemnable”, it does not in any way, prove bias against the appellant.

Having decided five of the eight issues raised in favour of Adeleke, the panel held that the “appeal on the whole is meritorious and is accordingly allowed.

“Judgment of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is hereby set aside ” and a cost of N500,000 was awarded against the respondent in favour of Adeleke.

The appellate court in its judgments allowed the appeals filed separately by the PDP and INEC against the decision of the tribunal.

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It however, dismissed the cross appeal filed by Oyetola and APC challenging the refusal of the tribunal to disqualify Adeleke on account of alleged provision of false and forged documents to INEC in aide of his qualification for the election.

However counsel to Oyetola and APC told journalists that they will challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court.