Ademola Adeleke's victory in the governorship elections held on July 16, 2022, was declared invalid by the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that commenting on this decision would be unproductive.
Prime 9ja Online reports that Adeleke, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had challenged Adegboyega Oyetola, a candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that the latter had won due to overvoting and certificate fraud.
The panel noted the shortcomings in APC's overvoting argument. Nevertheless, it discovered indications of over-voting in the July 16 gubernatorial race.
According to the tribunal, "Adegboyega Oyetola scored 314, 931 whereas Governor Ademola Adeleke received 290, 666 after removing illegal votes due to overvoting."
The court also decided that Adeleke had the necessary education to be a candidate for governor of Osun.
When asked about the verdict yesterday, Barr. Festus Okoye, national commissioner and head of INEC's Information and Voter Education Committee, stressed that the legal process must be allowed to run its full course.
Investigations focused on election overvoting and how easily politicians may damage the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) hardware.
In an interview, Okoye said, “The judicial process must run its full course.
“The governorship election tribunal is the court of first instance in election petition proceedings. The aggrieved party in this instance has signalled a wish to appeal against the ruling. It will be harmful to prejudge the outcome of the appeal.”
Further, he said it was wisest to wait for the outcome of the appeal.