Governor of Osun State Senator Ademola Adeleke has criticised the decision of the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and asked INEC to deny Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola a Certificate of Return (CoR).
Prime 9ja Online was informed that Adeleke wrote to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the head of the electoral umpire, requesting with INEC delay issuing Oyetola a Certificate of Return until the Court of Petition heard his appeal.
Adeleke’s attorney, Hashim Abioye, sent the following letter to the tribunal, which he partly signed: “As Solicitors to the 2nd Respondent, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, we humbly write to notify you that consequent upon the dissatisfaction of the 2nd Respondent by the majority decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal delivered on January 27, 2023, the 2nd Respondent has applied for a certified true copy of the judgement to enable him to pursue his appeal against the said judgement.
“In the light of the foregoing, we humbly ask you to apply the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, by not issuing any certificate (of) return to the 1st petitioner in the petition pending the outcome of the appeal which we are confident will be favourable to our client.”
Remember that the tribunal ruled that Gboyega Oyetola, the APC candidate for governor in the July 16, 2022 election, was the winner and ordered INEC to revoke the Certificate of Return granted to Governor Adeleke, the PDP candidate.
On the other hand, Governor Adeleke assured the people of the State via television that the tribunal did not reach a unanimous decision.
His exact words were, “Two members of the tribunal delivered opposing judgement, the chairman and a member, the member two did not deliver any judgement, she abstained.
“The chairman’s judgement affirmed the claim of overvoting, while the member one judge agreed with our position as captured by the BIVAS machine.”
Adeleke considered the chairman's decision about excessive voting to be unjust.
He declared that he would fight the decision because he was still the governor of Osun State.
The governor of Osun State advised the public to resume their daily routines without incident due to the commotion that followed the tribunal's decision.
According to Prime 9ja Online, there were sizable crowds of citizens in Osogbo, Ede, Ilobu, and Ilesa towns on Saturday as they protested the tribunal's decision, which was made public on Friday.
The demonstrators carried signs that included the phrase "This is a miscarriage of justice." Imole has arrived to stay, "Osun Citizens Reject Oyetola," and "On Imole mandate we stand" are all references to the outcome of the Imole election.
To stop anarchy and lawlessness, the Osun State Police Command had personnel on the ground in a war-ready position.
To disperse a crowd of protesters, agents on Gbongan Road had to fire warning rounds into the air close to the Aregbe junction.