The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the September 2018 election in Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, challenging the election of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.
The apex court in a split decision of five to two held that the proceedings and the majority judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal which had declared the PDP as the winner of the poll were a nullity.
Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour who read the lead cum majority judgment held that the absence of Justice Peter Obiorah who later read the lead judgment of the tribunal during the February 6, 2019 hearing had rendered the entire proceedings of the said tribunal and its judgment a nullity.
Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Amiru Sanusi, and Uwani Abba-Aji, consented to Justice Rhodes-Vivour’s majority judgment. But Justice Kumai Akaahs and Justice Paul Galinje affirmed PDP as the winner of the poll.
Rhodes-Vivour held that Obiorah was absent from the proceedings of February 6, 2019, but went ahead to deliver the lead majority judgment of the tribunal when he was not available to watch the demeanour of the witnesses who testified that day.
But Akaahs and Galinje dissented and declared Adeleke the true winner of the September 2018 poll, arguing that the conclusion that Justice Obiora did not participate in the February 6, 2019 proceedings of the tribunal “was based on conjecture” or at best “a well-articulated speculation”.
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