The supreme court has affirmed the election of Senator Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun state, putting to rest almost a year-long legal battle between him and ex-Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Delivering judgment on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the court of appeal correctly reinstated Adeleke as governor.
The judgement followed an earlier decision by a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Mohammed Shuaibu, which affirmed his victory, nullifying the judgement of the election petition tribunal.
According to Justice Emmanuel Agim, a member of the Supreme court panel who presided over the case, it held that the appellants, Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC), did not produce concrete evidence to support their claims of over voting and improper accreditation of voters.
The evidence submitted by the appellant which did not include the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines of the 744 poling units in dispute, could not be relied upon as the primary source of records for the accredited voters in the polling units, Agim
Failing to provide the authentic voter accreditation records from the BVAS implied that the appellants relied on a secondary, insufficient and inadmissible means to prove their allegations.
The court also ruled that the expert analysis presented by the APC and Mr Oyetola was not independent as the expert in question was a member of the APC and an associate of Mr Oyetola who had a vested interest in his analysis, affirming that the appellant failed to prove grounds of their petition.
“The appellant case clearly collapsed at the conclusion of evidence,” Justice Agim said.
Oyetola, the immediate past governor had filed a petition challenging Adeleke’s victory, and sought relief at the apex court following the Appeal Court’s verdict.