Tinubu Sends Message To Adeleke After Victory At Supreme Court

The President-elect, Bola Tinubu has reacted to the victory of the Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke at the Supreme Court.

Newsflash Nigeria recalls that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Adegboyega Oyetola had dragged Adeleke to court over the outcome of the July 16, 2022 poll.

While the Tribunal sacked Adeleke, the Appeal Court, and the Supreme Court affirmed the senator as the authentic winner of the July 16, 2022 poll.

In the lead judgment prepared and delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, a member of the five-man panel that presided over the case, the Supreme Court held that the appellants, Oyetola and APC did not produce concrete evidence to support their claims of overvoting and improper accreditation of voters.

Justice Agim held that the evidence submitted by the appellant which did not include the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines of the 744 polling units in dispute, could not be relied upon as the primary source of records for the accredited voters in the polling units.

Failing to provide the authentic voter accreditation records from the BVAS implied that the appellants relied on a secondary, insufficient and inadmissible means to prove their allegations.

The court also ruled that the expert analysis presented by the APC and Oyetola was not independent as the expert in question was a member of the APC and an associate of Oyetola who had a vested interest in his analysis, affirming that the appellant failed to prove grounds of their petition.

“The appellant case clearly collapsed at the conclusion of the evidence,”  Agim said.

Oyetola had sought relief at the apex court following the Appeal Court’s upturning of his victory at the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed Mr Adeleke as the validly elected governor.

Reacting to Adeleke’s victory, Tinubu noted that the verdict on the Osun governorship tussle must be respected.

Speaking via a statement the President-elect said,  “I congratulate Mr. Ademola Adeleke over his declaration by the Supreme Court as the winner of Osun Governorship election.

“The apex court in the land has spoken and all of us must obey its verdict. It is the right thing to do for democracy and rule of law to continue to thrive in the land.

“I must also commend the immediate-past governor of the state, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, for exercising his democratic rights as the constitution allows him to do.

“Governor Oyetola discharged himself creditably in office. He lost the office but did not lose his integrity and reputation as the governor who brought efficiency, transparency and accountability to the business of governance.

“Now that the matter of July 16, 2022, Osun State Governorship Election has been brought to a close, I urge Governor Adeleke to immediately settle down to work and continue from where the former governor left it. He should now move to unite the state.

 “I also urge all the people of Osun to work for peace and progress in the state.”

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