The Election Petition Tribunals in Nigeria are back again in the news. This time in Osun State where the Tribunal led by Justice Tetsea Kume removed the Governor, Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from office and declared his opponent, Gboyega Oyetola of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the July 16, 2022 election.
The premise of the ruling was the alleged over voting in the elections. The Tribunal then recalculated the results with the provided evidence and declared Oyetola the winner with 314,921 votes compared to Adeleke’s 290,266 votes.
The Tribunal also directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw Adeleke’s certificate of return and prepare same certificate for Oyetola.
However, Adeleke has vowed to challenge the ruling and urged his supporters to be calm. He expressed his confidence of regaining his mandate.
Nigerian elections have a reputation for disputes and are more usually settled in court after voting and initial declaration of results done. This case seems no different and we expect it to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
