Alfred Lahiri
The Supreme Court has affirmed Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the validly elected Governor of Osun State.
The apex court ruled that the appellant did not show reason why it should set aside the judgment of Court of Appeal which upheld the victory of Adeleke.
The Supreme Court in its lead judgment by Justice Emmanuel Agim, dismissed the appeal by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress.Agim ruled that Oyetola failed to prove his claim that
Adeleke won the election through over-voting in 774 polling units in the state.
The Justice said, he failed to produce any Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machine was used in the conduct of the election in any of the polling units to prove his allegation.
“It is glaring that the Appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS, but sought to prove over-voting by means of a report of examination of INEC’s database or backend server”.
“It is, therefore, the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on Election Day.”
The apex court dismissed the evidence tendered by an expert in support of a Oyetola’s claim saying both Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18- 23 of the INEC’s Regulations, did not make it mandatory for Presiding Officers in an election to transmit the number of accredited voters in each polling unit to the backend server by BVAS.
