Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been affirmed as the duly elected Governor of Osun State by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The lead judgment, delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, dismissed the appeal lodged against Adeleke’s election victory by the former governor of the state, Adegboyega Oyetola, who was the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The court held that Oyetola failed to produce any evidence of over-voting that occurred in 774 polling units in the state using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
The court stated that the BVAS was the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on election day.
It also held that there was nothing in either Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18-23 of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Regulations that 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.
The apex court dismissed evidence of purported expert witnesses that testified in Oyetola’s favour and found no reason to set aside the verdict of the Court of Appeal which upheld Adeleke’s election victory.
The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had earlier voided the declaration of Adeleke as the winner of the gubernatorial election, but the Court of Appeal reversed the judgment, setting the stage for the latest Supreme Court ruling.