Emmanuel Thomas l Wednesday, May 10, 2023
ABUJA, Nigeria – Osun State on Tuesday became a mini theatre following the decision of the Supreme Court, which affirmed the dancing Senator, Senator Ademola Adeleke as the rightful winner of the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state.
Senator Adeleke mounted a motorcade in his usually style mesmerizing the lovely people of his beloved state with his latest and very adorable dance step thanking the people and the judiciary for sticking with the truth.
In a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court dismissed the appealed filed by former governor of the state, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola and affirmed Adeleke as the duly elected governor of the state.
The court held that though Oyetola alleged that Adeleke won through over-voting in 774 polling units in the state, he, however, failed to produce any Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, a machine that was used in any of the polling units to prove his allegation.
“It is glaring that the Appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS, but sought to prove over-voting by means of a report of examination of INEC’s database or backend server”.
It held that nothing in either Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18- 23 of the INEC’s Regulations, made it mandatory for Presiding Officers in an election to transmit by BVAS, the number of accredited voters in each polling unit to the backend server.
In the July 16, 2022 governorship election, Senator Ademola Adeleke scored 403,371 votes to emerge winner while Gboyega Oyetola scored 375, 027 votes.
But the Osun State tribunal held that Gboyega Oyetola scored 314, 921 votes, while Adeleke scored 290, 266 and subsequently declared Oyetola as winner of the election.
