Oyetola asks Appeal Court to reverse tribunal’s decision

The Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to reverse the March 22 majority judgment of Osun Election Tribunal which declared Sen. Ademola Adeleke winner of September 2018 election.

The tribunal had, by a majority judgment given by two of its three members, voided the election of Oyetola, pronounced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate winner and asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue him a certificate of return.

In a notice appeal filed on March 26,  by his team of lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Oyetola urged the appellate court to nullify the tribunal judgment given by Justices Peter Obiora and Anyinla Gbolagunte.

Oyetola faulted the majority judgment on the grounds that it was perverse, replete with contradictions and not supported by evidence led by the petitioners.The Osun governor, therefore, prayed the Court of Appeal to uphold his appeal, set aside the majority judgment and dismiss Adeleke’s petition at the tribunal.

The governor said his complaint in the appeal was against the entire majority judgment, except where the tribunal held that it lacked jurisdiction to set aside INEC Guidelines.Oyetola contended that the majority judgment was a nullity because it was written and delivered by Justice Obiora, who did not participate in all the proceedings of the tribunal and who was not present when all the witnesses gave evidence.

He also noted that Justice Obiora was absent on Feb. 6 this year when the respondent’s witnesses (RWs) 12 and 13 – Ayoola Soji and Oladejo Kazeem – testified and tendered exhibits, which the tribunal admitted in evidence.

The appellant argued tha Justice Obiora could not have seen the two witnesses and was unable to examine their demeanour, as required, and therefore, unlawful for the judge to have authored a judgment to review the evidence given by the witnesses.

Oyetola also argued that the tribunal, in its majority judgment, erred in law and acted without jurisdiction when it accepted the petitioners’ complaint of non compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act in relation to the September 22, 2018 governorship election and on that basis proceeded to nullify the victory of Oyetola and APC.

Oyetola also argued that the tribunal acted outside its jurisdiction, erred in law and arrived at a perverse decision when it engaged in calculating and subtracting from election results to arrive at proclaiming Adeleke and PDP as being victorious.

He further noted that, not only did the decision disenfranchise the electorate in the affected polling units, it violated the provisions of Section 140(2) of the Electoral Act.

The appellant prayed the court to dismiss the petition by Adeleke and PDP, for being unmeritorious and set aside the majority decision of the tribunal, which he argued, “is against the weight of evidence.”