The appeal filed by Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the election of Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Governor of Osun State has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The court, through Justice Emmanuel Agim, upheld the decision of the Appeal Court that confirmed Adeleke’s election as the Governor of the state. The court ruled that the appellant failed to present enough evidence to prove his allegations of overvoting in the July 16, 2022, gubernatorial election. The entire five-member panel affirmed the judgment, stating that the appeal lacked merit.
In the July 2022 election, Adeleke, with 403,371 votes, defeated Oyetola, the incumbent governor who scored 375,027 votes, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). After allegations of irregularities in the election were made, Oyetola and his party challenged Adeleke’s victory at the Tribunal.
However, on January 27, 2023, the Tribunal upturned Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll. In response, Adeleke and the PDP went to the Court of Appeal, which nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and reinstated Adeleke as the winner on March 24. The Supreme Court backed the decision of the Appeal Court and upheld Adeleke’s victory.
