January 28, (THEWILL) – Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to issue a Certificate of Return (CoR) to Adegboyega Oyetola.
THEWILL reports that the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, had on Friday, directed INEC to issue a CoR to Oyetola, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the July 16, 2022, election in the state.
The Tribunal had in its judgment, delivered by Justice Tertse Kume, declared Oyetola the winner of the 2022 Osun governorship election.
But Adeleke, in a letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, urged the Commission not to issue any Certificate of Return to Oyetola pending the outcome of his appeal in the court.
The letter signed by his lawyer, Hashim Abioye, reads in part: “As Solicitors to the 2nd Respondent, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, we humbly write to notify you that consequent upon the dissatisfaction of the 2nd Respondent by the majority decision of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal delivered on January 27, 2023, the 2nd Respondent has applied for a certified true copy of the judgement to enable him pursue his appeal against the said judgement.
“In the light of the foregoing, we humbly ask you to apply the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, by not issuing any certificate (of) return to the 1st petitioner in the petition pending the outcome of the appeal, which we are confident will be favourable to our client.”
Meanwhile, in a broadcast to the people of Osun State, Governor Adeleke insisted that there was no majority judgement delivered by the Tribunal.
“Two members of the tribunal delivered opposing judgement, the Chairman and a member, the member two did not deliver any judgement, she abstained.
“The Chairman’s judgement affirmed the claim of over voting, while the member one judgement agreed with our position as captured by the BIVAS machine,” he said.
Adeleke maintained that the Chairman’s judgement on over voting was unfortunate and a miscarriage of justice.
He noted that he has instructed his lawyers to appeal the judgement as he remains the Governor of Osun State.
In the light of protests that greeted the Tribunal’s judgement, the Governor called on the people of Osun State to remain calm and go about their normal day-to-day activities peacefully.
Residents in their numbers trooped out to Osogbo, Ede, Ilobu and Ilesa towns on Saturday, to protest against the outcome of the verdict of the Tribunal, which was delivered on Friday.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards carried by the protesters include: “This is miscarriage of justice”, “On Imole mandate we stand”, “Osun Citizens Reject Oyetola”, “Imole has come to stay” etc.
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