July 16: How Adeleke Won Appeal Court’s Unanimous Decision

Sodiq Yusuf

Governor Ademola Adeleke of the State of Osun, on Friday, won at the Appeal Court, against the January 27, 2023 judgement that favoured his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola.

Oyetola, had approached the Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Osogbo, the state capital, after Adeleke was declared the winner of the July 16, 2022 governorship election.

The three-man Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Muhammed Lawal, assisted by Justice James Gomno and Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo held that the grounds of the verdict of the lower court were inappropriate.

The court also awarded N500,000 fine against the defendants, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, for abuse of court process.

Delivering the unanimous judgement, Justice Lawal stressed that the tribunal was wrong to have rejected the judgment of the Court of Appeal that cleared Adeleke of forgery.

The appellate court noted that grounds as raised on the adoption of the INEC server report as against that of the BVAS machines used for the election. It stated that the BVAS machines remained the primary source for the results collated manually and transmitted to the server.

The court ruled that the tribunal only relied on the table provided by Oyetola and the APC, to give judgment in their favour, which was not enough to prove over-voting.

Justice Lawal said for the defendants to prove over-voting, the voters register must be tendered as it is intrinsically part of accreditation, according to Section 137 of the Electoral Act.

On the issue of Governor Adeleke’s certificate, the court of appeal declared that Oyetola’s witness was not an expert which he held himself out to be at the tribunal. It said the Principal Witness 1, Rasak Adeosun who claimed to be an expert, did not give evidence of his qualifications, as well as deny his membership of the APC, making his evidence barren.

The Judge announced the decision of the Court of Appeal to set aside the tribunal judgment of 27th January and affirmed the victory of Gov. Ademola Adeleke.