On Monday, the Appeal Court postponed the judgement on the Osun State Governorship Appeal filed by Governor Ademola Adeleke. The governor had appealed the judgement of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal on February 9th, which nullified his election and ruled in favor of the former Governor of the State, Gboyega Oyetola. Adeleke had requested that the court reject the ruling of the Osun State tribunal, calling it a “miscarriage of justice”.
However, two out of the three-member tribunal panel held that Oyetola had proved that there was over-voting in some of the polling units, leading to the ruling in his favor. Adeleke then filed an appeal before the Akure division of the Court of Appeal, citing 31 grounds of appeal and seeking “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal.” He also requested “an order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit.”
The governor argued that the lower tribunal displayed bias against him by referencing his dance at his inauguration as governor of Osun State, which was never an issue before the tribunal. He claimed that this reference to his personal eccentricity for dancing, particularly the Buga song, rendered the decision of the lower tribunal a nullity. Adeleke also claimed that the lower tribunal erred in law by returning the first respondent as the duly elected candidate without due regard to the enormity of the voters in the units where the results were cancelled for overvoting.
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