Gov. Adegboyega Oyetola has on Monday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss all four appeals which had been filed by Sen. Ademola Adeleke the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging his victory in the 2018 Osun Governorship election.

Adeleke had made a move of upturning Oyetola’s victory by approaching the apex court with appeals marked:SC/553/2019; SC/554/2019; SC/555/2019 and SC/556/2019

Justice Mohammed  Tanko choose July 5 as the date to deliver judgment on the appeal, Tanko  made this declaration after all parties adopted their written addresses. The Counsel for Adeleke and the PDP Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) asked the court to grant the prayers contained in his client appeal, by upturning the judgment of the Court of Appeal that affirmed Oyetola as the validly elected governor of the state.

His statement had read:

“My Lords we pray the court to set aside the judgments of the Court of Appeal and restore the majority judgment given in his client’s favor by the election tribunal,’’

However, Chief Wole Olanipekun urged the court to ignore Adeleke’s request by affirming the judgment of the Court of Appeal. The Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC, consequently supported Olanipekun’s submission, and prayed the court to dismiss the appeal.

The  request made by Adeleke to declare the supplementary election void had been rejected by both courts, Ikpeazu had said INEC lacked the powers to have canceled elections in some pooling units and order a rerun.

He subsequently argued that supplementary election was not not needed because his client had fulfilled all constitutional requirement to be declared the winner of the election. He sited paragraph 44 of the INEC’s Guideline, on which basis the supplementary election was held, as according to him is in conflict with the Constitution.

NAN had reported that

The Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal had on March 22 declared the PDP candidate as the duly-elected governor of the state, thereby setting aside Oyetola’s victory at the poll. The tribunal held that the cancellation of results from seven polling stations across the state resulting in the conduct of the supplementary election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC violated the Constitution.

The state election tribunal therefore directed the electoral body to withdraw the Certificate of Return earlier issued to Oyetola and issue same to Adeleke. Dissatisfied with the decision, Oyetola, APC and INEC approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja with separate appeals challenging Adeleke’s declaration as governor by the tribunal. The appellate went ahead to upturn the decision of the tribunal in a judgment on May 9 which re-affirmed Oyetola’s victory as governor of the state. Also aggrieved with the decision, Adeleke approached the apex court urging it to set aside the judgment of the court of appeal and to restore the judgment of the tribunal.