(Video) Tribunal: Stripped Adeleke, Dances Buga
Osun Election Petition Tribunal has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the July 16 governorship election, Adegboyega Oyetola, were able to prove a case of forgery against Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The tribunal, however, held that the forgery case was not enough to disqualify him from contesting the election, adding that the PDP candidate had acquired additional qualifications.
Delivering the majority judgement, the tribunal, led by Justice Tertsea Kume, noted that the petitioners were able to prove a forgery case against Adeleke as EC9, which is the affidavit in support of personal particulars about the governor told “a lie about itself.”
Interestingly, the only member of the tribunal, Justice B.A. Ogbuli, who gave a dissenting ruling on the judgement, aligned with the position of the majority judgement on the issue of disqualification.
The tribunal held: “Respondent through Mrs Joan Arabs produced FILE D which was tendered in evidence. The said exhibit FILE D is in respect of the election conducted by the 1st respondent in 2018.
“Exhibit EC9, as earlier indicated, is the affidavit in support of the personal particulars of the 2nd respondent which he presented to the 1st respondent for the election of the 16th of July, 2022.
Therefore, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was directed to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mr Adeleke and hand it over to Mr Oyetola the “duly elected governor of the state.”
“For the sake of emphasis, the total lawful votes for each of the candidates after the said deduction of the invalid votes is 314, 931 for the 1st Petitioner, and 290,666 for the 2nd Respondent,” he held.
“Consequently, the 2nd Respondent did not score a majority of lawful votes cast at the election. The declaration and return are hereby declared null and void.”
“The 2nd Respondent cannot “go lo lo lo lo” and “Buga won” as the duly elected Governor of Osun State in the election conducted on 16h day of July 2022. Sings Kizz Daniel’s song BUGA. Rather, we hereby hold that the 1st Petitioner scored a majority of lawful votes in the said election and is hereby returned as such,” he said.
“The 1st Respondent is hereby directed to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the 2nd Respondent, and issue it to the 1st Petitioner as the duly elected Governor of Osun State. Accordingly, reliefs 72c, d in 744 Polling Units only, e, f, g, h and i already reproduced in the judgment are hereby granted. Having granted the main reliefs, the alternative reliefs are hereby struck out.”
