On Friday, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State asked the Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo to nullify the election of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke.
According to the governor, the election was fraught with certain irregularities.
He also stated that Adeleke should not have been declared the winner, as he was not qualified to contest the election in the first place, having submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
REPORTERS AT LARGE reported that Adeleke was declared elected by the INEC, after defeating his closest challenger, Oyetola, and 13 other candidates, scoring a total of 403,371 votes.
Oyetola garnered 375,027 votes and won in 13 Local Government Areas of the state, coming second in the election.
A member of Oyetola’s legal team, Kunle Adegoke (SAN), in an interview with Saturday PUNCH immediately after filing the petition in Osogbo, said the governor has assembled 50 lawyers, including 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, listing 13 grounds on which Adeleke should be disqualified.
Other key members of the legal team included Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Chief Akin Olujumi (SAN), Prince Biodun Layonu (SAN/, and Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN).
Adegoke said the election in many 749 polling units was fraught with irregularities.
The legal team, he said, have established by the petition that the election in those 749 polling units across 10 Local Governments in Osun State was characterized by irregularities pertaining to overvoting.
Adegoke said, “We have nothing less than 50 lawyers, including 10 SANs that we cannot list all of them, so we have listed about 20 lawyers in the petition. We have 13 reliefs. What we are contesting is that the election is fraught with certain irregularities by which the person declared winner ought not to have been declared. The petitioner, Alhaji Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola ought to have been declared the winner on the ground that Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke was not qualified to have contested the election in the first place, having submitted a forged certificate to INEC.
“The second is that the election in 749 polling units was fraught with irregularities, and the election in those units ought to have been nullified. All the polling units mentioned are located in 10 out of 30 local governments.
“So, if the election in those units is nullified and the votes are cancelled, then Alhaji Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola will have comfortable requirements of the constitution to be declared the winner of the election.”
Asked when the tribunal would commence sitting, Adegoke replied that he did not know.
“We don’t know yet but now that we have filed, it is expected that once the PDP is served, their lawyers will file their own defence then we will file a reply to their defence. That is when the tribunal will be able to give a date.
“Except if either of the two parties has an application that requires urgency, only then can the Tribunal have an emergency sitting but as of now nobody knows the date”, he said.
