Supreme court confirms Adeleke as Osun State governor
The Nigerian Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.
Delivering the judgment on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the court of appeal correctly reinstated Adeleke as the governor.
The Appeal Court, earlier in its judgement, set aside a judgment by the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which held in favour of Oyetola and sacked Adeleke.
It would be recalled that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the poll after he scored 403,371 votes to sack Oyetola who was the incumbent with 375,027 ballots.
However, Oyetola and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had alleged irregularities in the polls and challenged Adeleke’s victory in the tribunal.
Justice Tertse Kume then overturned Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll.
Justice Kume ruled that Oyetola scored the majority lawful votes of 314,931 against Adeleke’s 290,266.
Adeleke and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, however, headed to the Court of Appeal, which on March 24 nullified the tribunal judgment and returned Adeleke as the winner.
Today’s ruling by the apex court marks the end of the post-gubernatorial election contests in the Southwestern state.
Celebration has started with many party supporters in Osogbo, the state capital, already sending goodwill messages to the victorious Adeleke.
