Court Declares Adeleke Winner of Osun State Election

The PDP’s Ademola Adeleke has been declared the winner of the controversial state election by the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal. The court also declared the rerun election of September 27 to be illegal in the state. The Tribunal’s three-man panel delivered the judgment on Friday following the petition filed against the All Progressive Congress, APC and its candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, by Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate for the governorship, PDP, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

The Tribunal also ruled that PDP and Adeleke proved that it was the state Returning Officer who cancelled the results in 7 Polling Units, adding that the petitioners also proved that the Returning Officer has no power to cancel election results of a polling unit.

The Tribunal also deducted 2,029 votes from APC scores and 1,246 votes from PDP votes in 17 polling units where there was non-compliance.

Delivering the judgement, the panel had a split decision. While two members (majority judgment) ruled in favour of PDP and Ademola; the chairman, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo (minority judgment), ruled in favour of APC and Oyetola.