The governorship election on July 22 was declared null and void by the Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Governor Ademola Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusim of the Peoples Democratic Party, in its decision issued on Friday in Osogbo (PDP).
The panel, led by Justice Terste Kume, also ordered that Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress be issued a certificate of return (APC).
The governorship election, according to Justice Kume, was not conducted in accordance with the Electoral Act.
The tribunal determined that the governorship election was marred by excessive voting. It stated that after deducting the excess votes, Mr. Oyetola received 314 921 votes in the election.
The tribunal, thus, ordered that Mr Oyetola should be returned as governor of Osun State.
Mr Adeleke had been declared the winner with a total of 403,371 votes. He won in 17 of the 30 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state.
Mr Oyetola of the APC won in the remaining 13 LGAs with 375,027 votes
Fifteen candidates contested for the governorship election but it was keenly contested between Mr Adeleke and Mr Oyetola.
In his petition, Mr Oyetola claimed that the election was characterized by over-votings in 749 polling units.
He also argued that Mr Adeleke forged the academic credentials he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest for the election.
BACKGROUND
The tribunal panel started sitting around August 2022, a few weeks after the governorship election.
Mr Oyetola and the APC are petitioners in the case with Lateef Fagbemi and Akin Olujimi as their lead counsel.
INEC was the first defendant, Mr Adeleke was the second respondent and PDP was the third defendant.
Paul Ananaba is the counsel to INEC, Alex Iziyon is the counsel to PDP and Onyechi Ikpeazu is the counsel to Mr Adeleke.