The Supreme Court has affirmed Senator Ademola Adeleke as the validly elected governor of Osun, putting to rest months-long legal battle between him and ex-Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
In the lead judgment prepared and delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, a member of the five-man panel that presided over the case, the court held that the appellants, Mr Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC), did not produce a concrete evidence to support their claims of over voting and improper accreditation of voters.
Mr Agim held that the evidence submitted by the appellant which did not include the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines of the 744 poling units in dispute, could not be relied upon as the primary source of records for the accredited voters in the polling units.
Failing to provide the authentic voter accreditation records from the BVAS implied that the appellants relied on a secondary, insufficient and inadmissible means to prove their allegations.
The court also ruled that the expert analysis presented by the APC and Mr Oyetola was not independent as the expert in question was a member of the APC and an associate of Mr Oyetola who had a vested interest in his analysis, affirming that the appellant failed to prove grounds of their petition.
“The appellant case clearly collapsed at the conclusion of evidence,” Mr Agim said.
Mr Oyetola had sought relief at the apex court following the Appeal Court’s upturning of his victory at the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed Mr Adeleke as the validly elected governor.
