Osun Governorship Election Tribunal Resumes Sitting on Saturday

Writes that the Osun State Governorship Election tribunal sitting in Osogbo, the state capital will on Saturday continue hearing in the suit filed by Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress challenging the declaration by INEC of Senator Ademola A

Ismail Omipidan

By Saturday, December 3, 2022, the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Osogbo will resumee hearing in the petition filed by Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the declaration of Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the July 16 governorship contest in Osun state.

At its last but one sitting, the tribunal ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should produce Senator Ademola’s certificates and other attachments he filed with INEC when he ran for the governorship in 2018.

For those who may be coming across this Tribunal update for the first time and for the records, Oyetola and APC are challenging the outcome of the election on two main grounds.

One, that Senator Ademola was not qualified to run at the time he did. Two, that there was over-voting in 749 polling units across 10 LGAs.

What are the facts of the issues concerning qualification?

Recall that it is common knowledge that, in 2019, Senator Adeleke faced criminal allegations of examination malpractice.

He was arrested and brought before the court. He was granted bail, and then he travelled abroad. He however did not show up again until he returned barely a year to the July election.

Interestingly, when he was contesting in 2018, he claimed to have registered for GCE O’ Level in 1981 but had F9 in English Language and was recorded absent for other subjects.

Ironically, his profile on the website of the National Assembly at the time also indicated that he is a holder of a Diploma Certificate in Criminology from Jacksonville State University (JSU), where he purportedly graduated from in 1986.

However, in an investigation carried out by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) at the time, the above claim was faulted by Buffy Lockette, the Director of Public Relations at the university.

The fact -check done by ICIR further revealed that while it was true that Senator Adeleke had indeed enrolled at the institution, he was never awarded any certificate.

A further inquiry from the West African Examination Council’s website at the time to verify Senator Adeleke’s O’ Level result being paraded then, using examination number 19645/149 came back as “result not available for this candidate in the specified year and exams diet.” So, based on the foregoing, as at 2018, he had no O’Level results.

But upon his return, he claimed he has a diploma, awarded to him mid last year, and that the said certificate qualified him for a B.Sc. in Criminal Justice, from the Atlanta Metropolitan State College in the United States.

Interestingly, he claimed to have obtained the degree barely 24 days after getting the said Diploma certificate.

There are indeed interesting days ahead at the Tribunal, beginning from tomorrow.

Before then, below is the review of what transpired in the first three sittings of the Election Petitions Tribunal:

Day 1 Monday, November 21

On this day, an expert witness, Isiaka Olanrewaju, told the Tribunal that he established irregularities in the results used to declare the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, as the Governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He told the Justice Tertsea Kume-led tribunal that he came to that conclusion after analysing the result forms for the election and comparing them with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS).

On the same day, the tribunal also struck out the application by the Counsel for INEC, Prof. Paul Ananaba (SAN) filed to set aside the Subpoena issued on INEC for the production of Adeleke’s credentials used in the 2018 Governorship Election.

The witness who was led in evidence by the Petitioners’ counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), said he relied on forms EC8As, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and BVAS report released by INEC to arrive at his findings.

Under cross- examination by the INEC counsel, Professor Ananaba, the witness said he analysed the results of the election in 749 units across 10 Local Governments as against 762 units being suggested to him by the counsel for the respondents.

While INEC counsel put it to him that the witness analysed results of 762 units, he responded: “That is your opinion, I worked on just 749 units. where you see 762, I don’t know”.