The fate of Governor Ademola Adeleke and former Governor Gboyega Oyetola is hanging on a cliffhanger as the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Monday, reserved judgment in an appeal filed by Governor Adeleke of Osun state challenging the January 27, 2023 decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked him from office.

Whichever side the pendulum swings, the opposing party still has a step to climb for redress as the governorship election petition judgement could be appealed up to the Supreme Court. But, a 3-man panel of the Court of Appeal led by Mohamed Lawal Shuaibu began sitting on the appeal at about 10am.

While Governor Adeleke is the appellant, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are 1st and 2nd respondents in the appeal marked: CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023. The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) are also joined as 3rd respondent and 4th respondents respectively.

The court reserved judgment on the appeal by Adeleke after counsels in the case adopted their final written addresses and adumbrated on it.

Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, counsel to Gov. Adeleke in adopting his brief of argument held that a member of the panel, who is also a chief magistrate, did not voice out her opinion during the judgement delivery.

Mr. Ikpeazu said the panel member only appended her signature and the constitution mandates her to make her views about the suit known to the public.

It was Ikpeazu’s contention that not making a comment but rather , greeting counsel in the matter did not mean she agreed with the judgement.

Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, counsel to former Gov. Oyetola, however , submitted that from the records of the tribunal, it was stated lucidly:”Judgment of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal”.

Mr. Fagbemi said that signing of the judgment and not making any comment afterwards does not invalidate the split judgment of two to one, in favour of Oyetola.

He noted that the case of over voting exceeded 6 polling units as claimed by the Appellant, insisting that the electoral fraud took place in the 744 polling units across the state.

Also, Mr. Fagbemi argued that the findings of over voting were obtained from the back-end server of INEC, which was duly certified.

Mr. Fagbemi wondered why the INEC came back with the Appellant to say that there was an issue with the earlier information from it’s server.

He urged the appellate court to dismiss the issue of synchronization of server data by INEC, arguing that you can only use one BVAS for an election.

In their defense however, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu held that results stored in the back-end server, are inconsistent and unreliable as they can be affected by internet connectivity and battery life of the BVAS used to upload the result.
These two factors, according to him, can affect the upload.

Adeleke’s counsel also stated that he conducted a physical examination on the BVAS, and it showed that over voting occurred in just six polling units, and not 744 as claimed by the counsel to Oyetola.

Trouble started for Governor Adeleke on January 27, this year when a 3-man panel of Election Petition Tribunal ordered Adeleke’s sack and consequently directed the electoral umpire, INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to him (Adeleke) and issue a fresh one to Mr. Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.

The Justice Terste Kume led election petition tribunal held that Adeleke did not score the majority of lawful votes during the July 16 governorship election in the state.

Adeleke, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party was declared the winner of the governorship poll held on July 16,2022

Not satisfied with the outcome of the poll, in August 2022, Oyetola, the former Osun governor and his party, the All Progressives Congress petitioned the tribunal to challenge the victory of Adeleke on the grounds that Adeleke did not qualify to contest the election and that there was over voting in 749 polling units across 10 local government areas of the state.

In the judgement, two out of the three-member panel of the tribunal held that Oyetola could prove that there was indeed over-voting in some of the polling units. Dissatisfied, Governor Adeleke and the PDP have raised 74 grounds for their appeal against the tribunal judgement that switched his election to former Governor Oyetola.

The electoral commission, according to a notice of appeal filed by its counsel, Mr. Paul Ananaba, is also challenging the judgement. Mr Adeleke and the PDP, in their separate notices of appeal, argued that the judgement contained “errors in law.”

The governor is asking the appellate court to set aside the whole decision of the tribunal and dismiss Mr Oyetola’s petition for “want of competence and jurisdiction.”

Mr Adeleke raised 43 grounds of appeal in the notice.

The reliefs sought by Mr Adeleke are:

“An order allowing the appeal.

“An order setting aside the whole decision of the Tribunal

“An order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction.

“In the alternative to,

“An order dismissing the petition on the merit.”

The PDP, in its notice of appeal, is also asking the court to strike out the petition challenging its candidate for “want of jurisdiction.”

The party is praying to the appellate court to affirm Mr Adeleke as the duly elected governor of the state.

“The judgement is against the weight of evidence,” the party said in the notice of appeal.

The reliefs sought by the PDP are:

“An order dismissing/striking out EPT/OS/GOV/01/2022 for want of jurisdiction.

“Allow the appeal and dismissing petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/01/2022 in its entirety.

“Affirming the 4th Respondent as the duly elected Governor of Osun State having won the majority votes cast and satisfying the constitutional requirement in the Osun State Governorship Election of 16th July, 2022.”