For nearly two months, the people of Osun State in Nigeria were anxious and worried about the fate of their governorship election. The election petition tribunal had cast doubt on the validity of the mandate given to Governor Ademola Adeleke in the July 16, 2022 poll. Justice Tertse Kume’s judgement was controversial and appeared to undermine the democratic rights of the people to choose their leaders. The judge misapplied the principles of law and relied on false and discredited evidence to question the validity of the election. Specifically, Justice Kume adopted a controversial server report to conclude on over-voting, instead of the BVAS machines used for accreditation data.
Fortunately, the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja overturned the tribunal’s judgement and upheld the will of the people in a unanimous decision. Justice Muhammed Shuaibu read the lead judgement and criticized the tribunal’s finding on over-voting. He argued that there was no evidence to support the claim, and that the BVAS machines were the primary source of evidence for accreditation data. The BVAS machines were used for accreditation on the day of the election and transmitted data to the INEC’s backend server. Agents of political parties had access to the devices before and after the election, and the accreditation data was also recorded manually in the voters’ register.
The APC had failed to prove their over-voting allegation, and the Appeal Court stressed the importance of the voters’ register, which had been dismissed by the tribunal. However, the APC and Oyetola have yet to accept the decision of the people, and are still attempting to undermine the mandate given to Governor Adeleke. The judiciary must remain steadfast in protecting the democratic rights of the people and ensuring that their will is respected.
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