Buhari commends Supreme Court over Oyetola’s judgement

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari Friday commended the ruling of the Supreme Court in favour of Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.

“This Supreme Court decision lays to rest the tussle over the governorship of Osun State,” Buhari tweeted.

The president said the judgement “removes all encumbrances on the path of the governor from fully delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of the State.”

The apex court Friday morning, in a split decision, affirmed that Oyetola is the true winner of the Osun State September 2018 governorship poll.

Five out of the seven-man panel dismissed the appeal of the People’s Democratic Party and its candidate Ademola Adeleke. The panel said the ruling of the Osun State Election Tribunal was a nullity.

Two members of the panel kicked against the judgement.

The Independent National Electoral Commission in September 2018 declared Oyetola winner of the Osun governorship poll after a rerun.

INEC said Oyetola polled 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate scored 255,023 votes. Adeleke led the APC candidate with 353 votes after polling 254,698 to 254,345 at the end of the first round of the election on September 22.

Adeleke, however, challenged the declaration at the tribunal. The tribunal ruled that INEC was wrong to have ordered a rerun election. It nullified the rerun.

The court also ruled that INEC did not comply with its guidelines on results from 17 polling units.

The tribunal then deducted the results of both parties from the declared total of votes in the affected 17 polling units and declared PDP winner of the election with 254,698 votes to APC’s with 253,452 votes.

But the appeal court in May ruled that “the tribunal was in patent error when it set aside the rerun,” hence it upheld the declaration of Oyetola as the winner of the poll.