Court of Appeal reserves judgment in Osun Gov’ship election
Andrew Orolua, Abuja
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday reserved its judgment in the four appeals filed against the judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal.
The five man panel of justices of the Court of Appeal, presided by Justice Jummai Sankey, said that the dates for judgment would be communicated to parties.
She stated this after counsel to the parties adopted and argued their briefs of argument in the various suits.
The first suit with number CA/A/EPT/246/2019 which was filed by Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, against the decision of Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun governorship election, Senator Ademola Adeleke, winner of the state election.
Other respondent s are the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The second appeal with number CA/A/EPT/256/2019, filed by the APC has Adeleke, PDP, INEC and Oyetola as 1st to 4th respondents.
While the third appeal filed by INEC and marked: CA/A/EPT/259/2019, has Adeleke, PDP, Oyetola and APC as respondents, the fourth marked: CA/A/EPT/295/2019, filed by Adeleke has Oyetola, APC, INEC as respondents.
While the first three appeals are challenging the majority judgment of the tribunal, the fourth which is a cross appeal is seeking to upturn the decenting and minority judgment of the tribunal.
Both Oyetola and Adeleke had appealed the judgment of the Osun tribunal on the governorship poll held on September 22, 2018 and the rerun therefore held on September 27, 2018.
Oyetola and the APC in their appeals are asking the appeal tribunal to set aside the majority decision that nullified Oyetola’s victory and return Adeleke as the lawful winner of the poll, Adeleke on the other hand is asking the tribunal to uphold his victory as declared by the tribunal and upturn the minority Judgment which had dismissed his petition for lacking merit.
The petition tribunal had in a split decision of two-one in its March 22, 2019, judgment, voided the election of Oyetola and the APC in the Osun governorship poll.
It in addition ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Oyetola and issue a fresh one to Adeleke having won majority of the lawful votes cast at the poll.
Both Oyetola and Adeleke were present in court throughout the proceedings.
