The Appeal Court, on Monday has reserved the judgement on the Osun State Governorship Appeal filed by Governor Ademola Adeleke.
Recall that Adeleke had, on February 9th, appealed the judgement of the Osun State Governorship Tribunal, which nullified his election and declared former Governor of the State, Gboyega Oyetola as the winner.
Adeleke asked the court to reject the ruling of the Osun State tribunal describing it as a “miscarriage of justice”.
However, when the tribunal ruled in favour of a former governor of the state, Gboyega Oyetola, two out of the three-member tribunal panel held that Oyetola proved that there was over-voting in some of the polling units.
But weeks later, Adeleke filed an appeal before the Akure division of the Court of Appeal on the 31 grounds of appeal, praying to the court for “an order setting aside the whole decision of the tribunal”.
The governor is equally seeking “an order striking out the petition for want of competence and jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order dismissing the petition on the merit”.
Adeleke said, “The second respondent cannot ‘go lo lo lo lo’ and ‘buga won’ as the duly elected governor of Osun state.”
“The tribunal, in its judgment, erred in law and displayed bias against the appellant when it made reference to the appellant’s dance at his inauguration as governor of Osun State, which was never an issue before the lower tribunal,” the governor noted.
By referring to the appellant’s personal eccentricity for dancing, the lower tribunal derided and mocked him in a manner suggesting that it was biased against him.”
“The appearance of bias manifests in reference to the Appellant’s proclivity for dancing, particularly the Buga song, has rendered the decision of the lower Tribunal a nullity.
“The tribunal in its judgment erred in law in returning the 1st 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.”
During today’s proceedings, Counsel to Adeleke, Onyechi Ikpeazu, held that a member of the panel, who is also a chief magistrate, did not air her opinion during the Judgement delivery. Rather, she only appended her signature and the constitution mandates her to have aired her views about the suit.
Counsel to Mr Oyetola, Lateef Fagbemi however held that mere signing of the judgment, and not making any comment afterwards does not make the judgment invalid.
He noted that the case of over voting exceeded 6 polling units as claimed by the Appellant, adding that the anomaly was experienced in 744 polling units across the state.
