Supreme Court Affirms Adeleke as Osun Governor

*Dismisses Oyetola’s appeal

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as the Governor of Osun State.

A five member panel of justices of the Supreme Court made the affirmation shortly after dismissing the appeal of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola seeking to reverse the judgment of the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal which declared Adeleke lawful winner of the July 16 governorship election.

In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that the appeal was incompetent and lacking in merit.

According to the judgment, the apex court noted that the appellate court was in order when it held that the tribunal erred in arriving that there was malpractice in the election that produced Adeleke as winner of the Osun governorship election held July last year.

It is the position of the apex court that the appellants failed to prove allegations of non accreditation, improper allegations as well as over voting in 744 polling units in 10 local governments Areas in Osun State.

Besides, the apex court held that Adeleke was well qualified to contest the governorship election in Osun State as allegations of certificate forgery was not proved by the appellants.

It was the position of the court that the failure of the appellants to call the institution that awarded Adeleke the said certificate to prove otherwise was fatal to the case of the appellants.

The apex court therefore stated that the entire judgment of the lower tribunal was a nullity because it failed to consider the issue of jurisdiction raised by Ademola, adding that jurisdiction is crucial to the hearing of any case.

Similarly, the apex court agreed with the respondents that failure of the second member of the tribunal to give her own opinion in the majority judgment rendered the judgment a nullity.

Details later.