• Orders APC, Oyetola to pay gov N500, 000 as cost
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has restored the victory of Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the dully elected Governor of Osun State.
In a unanimous judgment on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu set aside the judgment of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had in its majority judgment declared Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the valid winner of the July 16, 2022 governorship election.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the tribunal, Governor Adeleke and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had approached the Court of Appeal asking for the setting aside of the judgment of the tribunal.
Meanwhile, the beneficiary of the tribunal’s judgment, Oyetola equally filed a cross- appeal challenging certain aspects of the judgment.
The appeals are CA/AK/EPT/GOV/01/2023 in EPT/OS/GOV/02/2022 between Adeleke Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Vs Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola & 3 ord; CA/AK/EPT/GOV/02/2023 in EPT/OS/GOV/02/2022 between Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Vs Adegboyega Oyetola & 3ors; CA/AK/EPT/GOV/03/2023 in EPT/OS/GOV/03/2022 between Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Vs Adegboyega Oyetola & 3 ors and CA/AK/EPT/GOV/03/2023 in EPT/OS/GOV/03/2022, a cross- appeal filed by Adegboyega Oyetola Vs INEC & 3ors. In its judgment on the multiple appeals, the appellate court held that Adeleke’s appeal was meritorious and it was accordingly allowed.
The court equally awarded the sum of N500, 000 as cost against the APC and its candidate, Oyetola.
While upholding Adeleke’s victory, the Court of Appeal held that the tribunal was “wrong to reach the conclusion that there was over-voting during the state governorship election held on 16 July 2022.”
The Court of Appeal equally noted that the petitioners – Oyetola and the APC “did not tender the voters’ registers and Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS machines,” which captured data of eligible voters at the Osun governorship election, to prove the allegations of over-voting.
The court held that the foundation of what transpired at the polling units would only be established by the evidence that is contained in the voter register and BVAS machines. It was the unanimous position of the court that over-voting can only be proved with a combination of data obtained from the BVAS and voters registers, adding that INEC back-end server report is not reliable to prove over-voting.
Besides, the appellate court noted that in a petition seeking declaratory reliefs, the burden is on the petitioners to proof their case and not to rely on the weakness of the respondents.
It held that the tribunal was equally wrong to have relied on the evidence of PW1, who is not an expert statistician, in arriving at a conclusion that there was over-voting.
In addition, the court faulted the evidence of PWI on the grounds that being a card-carrying member of the APC, his evidence cannot be relied on by the provisions of the Evidence Act. The court wondered how the tribunal arrived at its calculation in arriving that there was over-voting when the documents presented before it were not demonstrated as it only relied on the table of statistics provided by the petitioners.
Other sister appeals were equally resolved in favour of Governor Adeleke.