The Supreme Court is set to give a final ruling in the Osun State governorship tussle between Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The verdict will be centered on who between the two candidates, was duly elected governor of the state in 2018…
A seven-member panel of the court, led by Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko, slated Friday for judgement on the matter after entertaining arguments from parties on June 17.
Adeleke in the September 22 and 27 elections, Ademola Adeleke, filed a petition at the Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the victory of the governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola, of the APC.
The main election was held on September 22 while a supplementary election was held on September 27 in seven polling units.
The electoral commission, INEC, declared the APC candidate winner of the election after the supplementary poll termed controversial.
The PDP candidate, who claimed he polled the highest number of votes in the election, asked the tribunal to cancel the victory of Oyetola and declare him the winner of the election.
The Osun tribunal had ruled in Adeleke’s favour and declared him the winner of the election. In a split judgment of two to one, the tribunal ruled that INEC was wrong to have ordered a rerun election. It nullified the rerun.
Read Also Ogun Guber: Gov. Abiodun wins again as Court strikes out case
The court also ruled that INEC did not comply with its guidelines on results from 17 polling units.
The tribunal then deducted the results of both parties from the declared total of votes in the affected 17 polling units.
According to the tribunal, the PDP won the election with 254,698 votes, while the APC came second with 253,452 votes.
The tribunal also said that the PDP would still have won the poll even if it had opted to validate the supplementary election.
But in a contrary opinion in May, the Court of Appeal ruled that “the tribunal was in patent error when it set aside the rerun.”
The appellate court, which had also delivered its verdict in a split decision of four to one, ruled that the judge who issued the majority decision at the tribunal, Peter Obiora, was absent on February 6, 2019, when a major discussion on the issue of none-compliance was tabled before the tribunal; and could therefore not have viewed the issue squarely.
Apparently dissatisfied, Adeleke approached the Supreme Court and the Day of Judgment is here!
 and Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).){kind=link}