The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has given an update on the Osun State governorship appeal filed by Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The court on Monday reserved judgement on the appeal.
The appeal filed by Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party is against a judgment of the bench which abrogated his election as governor of Osun State.
The three- member panel of judges led by JusticeM.F. Shuaibu began sitting on the appeal at about 10am.While Adeleke is the complainant, Oyetola and the All Revolutionaries Congress are 1st and 2nd repliers in the appeal marked CA/ AK/ EPT/ GOV/01/2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP are also joined as 3rd replier and 4th repliers independently.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on January 27, voided the July 16, 2022, election that produced Adeleke of PDP as the tagged governor.
INEC had declared Adeleke the winner of the election after polling a aggregate of,371 votes. He was said to have won in 17 of the 30 original government areas in the state.
But the panel led by Justice Terste Kume, in its judgment, abrogated the election and declared Mr Gboyega Oyetola of APC as the valid winner of the bean.
The bench directed INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusi, both of whom had been sworn in.
It, still, directed that the Certificate of Return should rather be issued to Oyetola.
Justice Kume held that the governorship election wasn't held in compliance with Nigeria’s Electoral Act. The bench also held that the governorship election was characterised byover-voting. It said after abating the inordinate votes, the figure Oyetola polled at the election was 314, 921.
The bench, therefore, ordered that Oyetola should be returned as governor of Osun State.
NAN reports that INEC, in its earlier results, said Oyetola won in 13 LGAs with,027 votes in the July 16, 2022 governorship election.
Fifteen campaigners queried for the bean which was keenly queried between Adeleke and Oyetola.
In his solicitation, Oyetola, the immediate- once governor of the state, had contended that the election was characterised byover-voting in 749 polling units.
He also argued that Adeleke forged the academic credentials he submitted to NEC to dispute for the election.
The bench had commenced sitting in August 2022, a many weeks after the governorship election. Oyetola and the APC were pleaders in the case with Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and Akin Olujimi, SAN, as their lead counsels.
INEC was the 1st defendant, Adeleke the 2nd defendant and PDP as 3rd defendant.
The hail was still ongoing as at the time of filing the report.
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