The Court of Appeal, Abuja on Monday reserved judgment in an appeal filed by Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party against a judgment of the tribunal, which invalidated his election as Governor of Osun State and pronounced the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Gboyega Oyetola, as winner.
The three-member panel led by Justice M. F. Shuaibu did this after listening to counsel to Adeleke and Oyetola.
Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) and Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), appeared for the immediate-past governors.
Shuaibu said judgment would be delivered at a later date.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that while Adeleke is the appellant, Oyetola and the APC are 1st and 2nd respondents in the appeal marked: CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission and the PDP are also joined as 3rd respondent and 4th respondents respectively.
However, INEC, represented by Paul Ananaba (SAN), and PDP, represented by Alex Iziyon (SAN), did not file any process in the case.
The appellant court is also expected to hear the appeal filed by the PDP, INEC and Oyetola’s cross appeal.
NAN reports that the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on January 27, 2023 voided the July 16, 2022 election that produced Adeleke of the PDP as the elected governor.
INEC had declared Adeleke the winner of the election after polling a total of 403,371 votes.
He was said to have won in 17 of the 30 local government areas in the state.
But the panel led by Justice Terste Kume, in its judgment, invalidated the election and declared Oyetola as the valid winner of the poll.
The Tribunal directed INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusi, both of whom had been sworn in.
It directed that the Certificate of Return should instead be issued to Oyetola.
Justice Kume held that the governorship election was not held in compliance with Nigeria’s Electoral Act.
The Tribunal also held that the governorship election was characterised by over-voting.
The tribunal thus ordered that Oyetola should be returned as governor of Osun State.
Fifteen candidates stood for the election, which was keenly contested between Adeleke and Oyetola.
In his petition, Oyetola, the immediate-past governor of the state, had alleged that the election was characterised by over-voting in 749 polling units.
He also argued that Adeleke forged the academic credentials he submitted to INEC to contest for the election.
The Tribunal had commenced sitting in August 2022, a few weeks after the governorship election.
Oyetola and the APC were petitioners in the case with Fagbemi and Akin Olujimi (SAN) as their lead counsel.
INEC was the 1st defendant, Adeleke the 2nd defendant and PDP as 3rd defendant.
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