The Court of Appeal (Abuja Division) has reserved judgement in an appeal filed by Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, challenging the January 27, 2023 decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which sacked him from office.
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal led by Mohamed Lawal Shuaibu, reserved judgement on the appeal after hearing the various counsels in the matter.
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The state tribunal sacked Adeleke and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to him and issue a fresh one to Gboyega Oyetola as the duly elected governor of Osun.
The counsel to Adeleke, Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), in adopting his brief of argument held that a member of the panel, who is also a chief magistrate, did not voice out her opinion during the judgement delivery.
Ikpeazu insisted that the panel member only appended her signature and the constitution mandates her to make her views about the suit known to the public.
He argued that not making a comment but rather greeting counsel in the matter did not mean she agreed with the judgement.
The counsel to Oyetola, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), however, submitted that from the records of the tribunal, it was stated lucidly, “Judgment of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal”.
Fagbemi argued that signing of the judgement and not making any comment afterwards does not invalidate the split judgement of two to one, in favour of Oyetola.
He said the case of over voting exceeded six polling units as claimed by the appellant, insisting that the electoral fraud took place in the 744 polling units across the state.
In addition, Fagbemi argued that the findings of over voting were obtained from the back-end server of INEC, which was duly certified.
Fagbemi wondered why the INEC came back with the appellant to say that there was an issue with the earlier information from its server.
He dismissed the issue of synchronization of server data by INEC, arguing that you can only use one BVAS for an election.
In his defence, however, Ikpeazu held that results stored in the back-end server, are inconsistent and unreliable as they can be affected by internet connectivity and battery life of the BVAS used to upload the result.
These two factors, according to him, can affect the upload.
Adeleke’s counsel also stated that he conducted a physical examination on the BVAS, and it showed that over voting occurred in just six polling units, and not 744 as claimed by the counsel to Oyetola.
Adeleke, the candidate of the PDP was declared the winner of the governorship poll held on July 16, 2022.