The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has rejected the judgement of the governorship election petitions tribunal that nullified his victory at the July 16, 2022 gubernatorial poll.
According to him, the verdict was “a miscarriage of justice”, and vowed to challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
The tribunal had on Friday annulled the result of the July 16 Osun governorship poll which brought in Adeleke as governor and agreed with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress that there was over-voting.
Justice Tetsea Kume, while delivering a majority decision, declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not comply substantially with the constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Reacting to the verdict of the tribunal from his country home in Ede, Adeleke faulted the resolution of the over-voting question in favour of Oyetola, calling it “an unfair interpretation against the will of majority of voters”While urging his supporters to remain calm, Adeleke vowed to appeal the judgement at the Court of Appeal, insisting he remained the rightful winner of the July 16 election.
The governor, in a statement signed by his spokesman, Olawale Rasheed, said, “I call on our people to remain calm. We will appeal the judgement and we are sure justice will be done. Let our people be reassured that we will do everything possible to retain this widely acclaimed mandate.”
Meanwhile, Kume had deducted the over-voting observed from the votes scored by the candidates and declared that Oyetola won the election, having polled 314, 921, while Adeleke’s score came down to 290, 266.
He had directed INEC to withdraw Adeleke’s certificate of return and issue another one to Oyetola who won a majority of the lawful votes.
