Osun: Appeal court upholds Adeleke’s election victory — can he avoid a repeat of history?
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Ademola Adeleke as governor of Osun.
On Friday, the appellate court set aside the verdict of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked him from office.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Adeleke secured 403, 371 votes to defeat Gboyega Oyetola who polled 375,027 votes during the election held on July 16, 2022.
But at the tribunal, justice Tertsea Kume, chairman of the three-man panel, held that the governorship election did not comply with the Electoral Act, thereby invalidating Adeleke’s victory.
Tertsea said that there was indeed over-voting in six local government areas in the state.
Not satisfied with the judgement, Adeleke appealed the verdict.
Reactions have continued to trail the latest appeal court ruling, with Oyetola likely to take the case to the supreme court.
There are fears in some quarters if Adeleke can win the case at the supreme court, should the matter gets to the apex court.
Such fears were informed by similar experience in 2018 where Adeleke lost out at the appeal court and supreme court respectively.
THE 2018 EXPERIENCE
Adeleke was the candidate of the PDP during the 2018 governorship election in Osun where he lost to Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the time, INEC had declared Oyetola the winner of the election after a rerun in September 2018.
Dissatisfied with INEC’s declaration, however, Adeleke had filed a petition at the tribunal and he was declared winner of the election but Oyetola appealed the verdict of the tribunal.
The appeal court would later give its judgement in favour of Oyetola — a verdict the supreme court also upheld.
Adeleke’s foray into politics started after the demise of Isiaka, his elder brother, in 2017.
He had replaced Isiaka as representative of Osun west senatorial district and was referred to as “dancing senator”, especially on social media, because of his dancing skills.
Several videos of the former lawmaker dancing have surfaced on the internet on numerous occasions, especially since he joined politics.
Adeleke is the father to musicians B-Red and Sina Rambo, and an uncle to Davido, the award-winning singer.
Can he avoid a repeat of history?
