Adeleke Vs Oyetola: Appeal Court Hears Osun Governorship Case Today

The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja will today (Monday) begin the hearing of the Osun state 2022 governorship election appeal case.

The state Governor, Ademola Adeleke is appealing the ruling of the governorship tribunal which declared the former governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola as the authentic winner of the July 16 governorship election in the state.

The Court of Appeal will hear all the parties in the matter and then proceed to communicate to them at a later time, the date for hearing the results of their critical examination of the decision of the Tribunal.

The court at the end of the case is expected to uphold or set aside the decision of the Tribunal.

At the Tribunal, there were two contentious issues.

The first issue has to do with whether it was right for the Tribunal to rely on the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the BVAS report generated from the back-end server of the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC).

The second issue has to do with the erroneous claim that to prove over-voting, the petitioners Oyetola and the APC must produce the Voter Register.

However, in deciding the first issue, the majority judgement at the Tribunal held that since the issuing authority, which is INEC, did not at any time say the BVAS report which was generated from the back end server was an “interim one, inchoate or unsynchronised” at the time it was issued to the petitioners, the one that was issued during the pendency of the case after the petition had been filed was an afterthought, and as such it was set aside.

The tribunal ruled: “Moreover, exhibit BVR (given to Oyetola and APC) has not been withdrawn by the first respondent (INEC), who made and issued it. The petitioners relied on exhibit BVR in maintaining this petition.

“Similarly, the exhibit tendered by the respondents after the exhibit BVR submitted by learned counsel to the petitioners was thought of after the declaration of results on the 17th day of July 2022.

“The said conduct of the respondents, especially, the first (INEC) respondent amounts to tampering with official records. The conduct of the first respondent in the said election under consideration has produced multiple accusation reports, contrary to votes declaration, to conduct of free, fair and credible elections on the basis of one man or woman with one vote.”

The Tribunal further said: “In other words, the defences of the respondents are tainted with fundamental flaws, irreconcilable and unreliable, incapable of defeating the credible evidence tendered by the petitioners in respect of the 744 polling units where overvoting has been established.”