Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has reserved judgment on the petition seeking to nullify the election of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The decision was taken by the Justice Ibrahim Sirajo-led, three-man tribunal after all the parties in the matter adopted their final briefs of argument.
The election petition was lodged before the tribunal by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and its governorship candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
Justice Sirajo said a date for the judgment would be communicated to all the parties.
Adeleke and his political platform, the PDP, had through their team of lawyers led by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, urged the tribunal to declare that Governor Oyetola was not the valid winner of either the substantive election that was conducted on September 22, 2018, or the re-run election that took place on September 27, 2018.
The petitioners had alleged that the re-run poll was marred by manifest irregularities, even as they urged the court to nullify Oyetola’s election and declare Adeleke as the rightful winner of the governorship election.
They submitted before the tribunal that the election was characterised by massive rigging, vote buying and other forms of malpractices, claiming that PDP scored the majority of the lawful votes in the election.
On his part, Adeleke claimed that the total votes he garnered on September 22 were 245,698 while the 1st Respondent scored 245,345.
It was the argument of the petitioners that INEC ought to have declared Adeleke as the winner of the election, saying there was no need for the subsequent supplementary election.