Gboyega Oyetola, the Osun State governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state, has dragged the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the election, Ademola Adeleke, to the election tribunal, alleging overvoting in 749 polling units.
Oyetola and the APC, on Friday, filed a petition before the Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the State High Court, Osogbo.
The petitioners challenged the results of the election in some local government areas and prayed the tribunal to return their mandate to them.
This is even as the first petitioner, Oyetola, was physically present at the tribunal to sign the petition filed before the tribunal.
A lawyer among the petitioners’ team, Ibrahim Lawal, posted on his verified Facebook page on Friday that Oyetola and the party discovered overvoting in 749 polling units across 10 local government areas.
Lawal said: “We are challenging 749 polling units scattered across 10 local governments for overvoting.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Senator Adeleke winner of the election, having polled 403,271 against 375,027 polled by Governor Oyetola.
Addressing journalists after the petition was filed on Friday, August 5, 2022, one of the petitioners’ lawyers, Mr Kunle Adegoke (SAN), expressed confidence in the substance of the petition to ensure victory for Governor Oyetola and the ruling party.
According to him, the legal team of the petitioners has established fundamental grounds to seek justice and ensure victory for them in view of the substance of the case.
Adegoke said: “We are here to file a petition on behalf of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in respect of July 16 governorship election in the State. The petition has been filed and it has been received by the registry of the tribunal.
“In the next few days, activities will be in top gear in respect to the proceedings of the tribunal. So, we are here today with the petition which has fundamental grounds upon which we believe the election ought to have been returned in favour of Mr Adegboyega Oyetola and All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We are confident of the petition and we are confident of victory.”
Also, the state chairman of the APC, Mr Gboyega Famodun, while fielding questions from newsmen, expressed confidence in the substance of the petition, saying “by the grace of God, we will win the case and come out victorious.”
Famodun said: “We are here today to file our election petition to challenge the outcome of the July 16 governorship election in Osun. We just filed it, signed, and sealed it for the tribunal to take over from there.
“By the grace of God, we are confident of victory. The members of the party are in tune with me and that is the reason why you see many of them here with me. A lot of people are here today, believing that we have a good case and by the grace of God, we will have a cause to jubilate at the end of the case.”
