Apex Court Affirms Adeleke As Osun Governor

Nigeria's apex court on Tuesday, has affirmed the judgement of the Appeal Court which confirmed Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State.

In a judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court dismissed the appeal lodged by former governor, Adegboyega Oyetola. 

Oyetola had alleged that Adeleke won the election by over voting in the 774 polling units in the state. However, the apex court insists he failed to produce any Bi-modal Voters Accreditation Systems, BVAS document to back up his claims. 

“It is glaring that the Appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS, but sought to prove over-voting by means of a report of examination of INEC’s database or backend server”.

According to the court, the BVAS is the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on election day, adding that nothing in either Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18- 23 of the INEC’s Regulations, made it mandatory for Presiding Officers in an election to transmit, by BVAS, the number of accredited voters in each polling unit to the backend server.

Following the conclusion, the court dismissed evidence of purported expert witnesses that testified in Oyeyola’s favour, noting that it found no reason to set aside the verdict of the Court of Appeal which upheld Adeleke’s election victory.

In a split decision on January 27, 2023, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal voided the declaration of Adeleke as the winner of the gubernatorial election.

In a majority verdict, the tribunal upheld the petition brought before it by the former governor who came second in the election, ruling that Adeleke did not score majority of lawful votes and that the conduct of the election was not in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.