PDP’s Ademola Adeleke declared winner of Osun governorship election

An election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja has declared Senator Ademola Adeleke of the PDP, winner of the Osun governorship election which held on Saturday, September 22, 2018.

APC’s Gboyega Oyetola was declared winner of the election after the rerun conducted on Thursday, September 27.

The Justice Ibrahim Sirajo-led three-man bench began delivering judgment on the case at 10.33am on Friday, March 22, 2019.

L-R: Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, APC governorship candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, and President Muhammadu Buhari. Oyetola is hosted at the villa after his election win (Presidency) ece-auto-gen

The election petition tribunal cancelled the results of 17 polling units, deducting 2,227 votes from the APC and 1,246 votes from the PDP.

The tribunal also ruled against the APC and INEC on non-recording of votes. At the end of proceedings, the tribunal established that the rerun election was unlawful.

A tale of an inconclusive election

Prof. Joseph Afuwape, Returning Officer for the Sept. 22 Osun governorship election, declared the poll inconclusive on September 23.

Afuwape, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), had announced that while Adeleke scored 254,698 votes, Oyetola polled 254, 345 votes.

Adeleke had won in the first ballot.

Gboyega Oyetola of the APC won the Osun governorship vote by the slimmest of margins (Punch) ece-auto-gen

Afuwape also announced that a total of 3,498 votes were cancelled in the seven affected polling units.

“Based on this fact, I cannot declare anyone the winner of the election,” he had said before television cameras.

The election was declared inconclusive because the victory margin of 353 votes of first-placed candidate, Adeleke, over second-placed Gboyega was less than the 3,498 votes cancelled in seven polling units.

The rerun election

Oyetola would go on to win the rerun election with a vote differential of 835; after polling a vote total of 1160 votes to Adeleke's 325.

When Adeleke's previous lead of 353 was added to his tally in the rerun, he still came short behind Oyetola by 482 votes.

Top ranking APC sources have told Pulse that the party will challenge the ruling of the tribunal at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, if it came to that.

The APC, Pulse has learnt, will file a stay of execution of the judgment. Oyetola will continue to serve as governor until judgment is delivered by the Supreme Court.

Ademola Adeleke, 58, currently represents Osun West in the senate. He hails from the Adeleke family in Ede, Osun State.