The Supreme Court will on Friday lay the controversy surrounding the 2018 gubernatorial election in Osun state to rest.
The apex court is set to deliver judgment in the appeals brought before it by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , Senator Ademola Adeleke, challenging the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which affirmed the election of Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the governor of the state.
Adeleke’s four appeals, marked: SC/553/2019; SC/554/2019; SC/555/2019 and SC/556/2019 are challenging the May 9, 2019 judgments of the Appeal Court, which held that Oyetola was validly elected as governor of Osun State.
The appellate court had also set aside the majority judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal which had allowed Adeleke’s petition and declared him the winner of the election.
A seven-man panel of the appellate court, led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad heard the appeals last month and slated Friday for judgment.
Adeleke had, in his appeals prayed the apex court to set aside the ruling of the appeal court and uphold the decision of the Tribunal, which declared him as the validly elected governor of Osun State.
Osun State Election Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had ruled that Senator Adeleke was the rightful winner of the 2018 governorship election, having satisfied the constitutional requirements of majority votes and spread across the local government areas of the state.
The tribunal also nullified the rerun election of September 27, 2018.
The Appeal Court had reversed the ruling, nullifying the decisions of the tribunal and reinstating Oyetola as the winner of the said election.