The Supreme Court will this morning, Monday, June 17, hear the appeal filed by Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party challenging the declaration of Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress as governor of Osun state.
The court’s registry had disclosed today as the day for hearing the arguments of the parties involved in the case. The court could also choose to give its ruling today.
This was also confirmed by the spokespersons of the two political parties involved.
Adeleke and the PDP had taken the matter to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal on May 9 upturned the verdict of the Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal, which declared Senator Adeleke winner of the governorship election.
Recall that the appeal court held that the irregular composition of the election tribunal, where the judge who delivered the majority judgment, Justice Peter Obiorah, was absent in the proceedings, affected the right of the appellant to fair hearing.
The five member panel of justices, which was presided by Justice Jummai Sankey, also upheld 10 out of the 12 issues raised by Governor Oyetola that the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to entertain some of the grounds of the petition brought by Adeleke.
The appellate court held that having ruled that the claims of over-voting and voiding of valid votes were unproven by the tribunal in the 17 polling units out of 3,010 polling units in the state, the non-compliance was not substantial to proceed to compute and deduct votes.
However, Adeleke and his party, PDP, are asking the Supreme Court to set aside the appeal court’s judgement which is in favour of Governor Oyetola.
They also contended that the appeal court erred in law when it upheld the appeals by APC and INEC, challenging the decision of the tribunal.
They further contended that the appellate court erred when it dismissed its cross appeal, where it challenged the improper ballot counting which cost it 3, 402 and 379 votes in 23 polling units.
Consequently, Adeleke and the PDP are seeking a declaration that they won the September 22, 2018 governorship election by a wider margin than what was found by the tribunal in view of what they called the substantial non compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
