Osun poll: ‘Divine victory cannot be stolen through backdoor’– Adeleke, as Oyetola heads to Tribunal with 50 lawyers, 10 SANs

Governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke has vowed to defend the mandate given to him by the people during the recently-concluded Osun State Governorship Election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday, July 16, this year.

This is also the incumbent state governor, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola has officially approached the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo, the state capital, to appeal the result of the exercise, which he claimed through his lawyers was fraught with irregularities.

Governor Oyetola has also hired a total of 50 lawyers, including 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to prosecute his case at the election tribunal.

In a statement reacting to the decision by the incumbent, Oyetola to challenge his victory at the Election Tribunal, Adeleke, in a statement issued, Saturday, through his media aide Mallam Olawale Rasheed, urged the people of the state to remain calm.

He said his emergence as governor-elect was entrenched in total compliance with the law and will of the people, saying he has nothing to fear.

According to Senator Adeleke, who lost the 2018 governorship poll to Oyetola, the recent Osun governorship election was one of the most credible elections in recent times in Nigeria, adding that ‘the people’s mandate freely given him would be defended and validated.’

Adeleke assured further that he ‘has confidence in God and the judiciary to defend the mandate,’ just as he disclosed that the PDP legal team was already taking appropriate action on the filing.

“This divine victory cannot be stolen through the backdoor.

“I urge the good people of Osun State who voted massively to reject bad governance to remain calm. We are doing the needful to defend their mandate. We will do all within our powers to ensure judicial validation of our victory as this is an election globally certified as a great advancement in electoral transparency and integrity.

“We also want to reaffirm our faith in the judiciary as a bastion of hope and justice. We have unshakeable trust in God that this election petition shall end in another landmark victory for us and the resilient people of Osun State,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, Governor Oyetola had on Friday asked the Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the election of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke., alleging that ‘the election was fraught with certain irregularities.’

According to Oyetola, who spoke through a member of his legal team, Kunle Adegoke (SAN), said INEC should not have declared Adeleke winner as he was not qualified to have contested the election in the first place, having submitted forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Adegoke also disclosed that Governor Oyetola after filing the petition in Osogbo has assembled 50 lawyers including 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), listing 13 grounds on which premises Adeleke should be disqualified.

Other key members of the legal team included Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Chief Akin Olujumi (SAN), Prince Biodun Layonu (SAN/, Muritala Abdulrasheed (SAN).

Adegoke said the election in many 749 polling units were fraught with irregularities.

The legal team, he said, have established by the petition that the election in those 749 polling units across 10 Local Governments in Osun State was characterized by irregularities pertaining to over voting.

Adegoke said, “We have nothing less than 50 lawyers, including 10 SANs that we cannot list all of them, so we have listed about 20 lawyers in the petition. We have 13 reliefs. What we are contesting is that the election is fraught with certain irregularities by which the person declared winner ought not to have been declared and the petitioner, Alhaji Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola ought to have been declared the winner on the ground that Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke was not qualified to have contested the election in the first place, having submitted forged certificate to INEC.

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sunday morning, July 17, officially declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as winner of the Osun State governorship elections, conducted Saturday, July 16, across the 30 local government areas of the state.

According to INEC, Adeleke polled a total of 403, 371 votes to beat his closest challenger and incumbent State Governor, Adegboyega Adeleke of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had garnered 375, 027 votes.

According to the results announced by INEC, out of the votes counted across the state, Senator Adeleke received 403,371, unseating the incumbent, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, who polled 375,027 votes.

Returning Officer, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe who is also the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos returned Adeleke, having scored the required number of votes and in fulfillment of the extant laws.

The PDP candidate won in 17 out of 30 Local Governments Areas with  403,371 votes while Oyetola claimed 13 LGAs with 375,027 votes.

Speaking at the Collation Center at the ÍNEC, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof AbdulGaniyy Raji thanked residents of Osun state for living up to their billing by conducting themselves in peaceful manner.

The election, which has been described by many stakeholders as peaceful, free, fair and credible, was characterised by early arrival of electoral staff and voting materials, optimal functioning of Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and large turnout of voters.

The Osun governorship election held in 332 wards with 3,763 Polling Units. The state had a total of 1,955,657 registered voters with 1,479,596 of them being eligible to vote.

However, since the announcement of the result by INEC, the incumbent governor has yet to officially congratulate Adeleke, the winner, neither has he conceded defeat in the election.

Meanwhile, barely hours after he announcement by INEC, President Muhammadu Buhari sent in his congratulatory message to the victorious PDP candidate.

A statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, same Sunday, quoted Buhari as noting that ‘the successful conduct of the election is a further testimony to the maturity and commitment of all stakeholders – the electoral body, security agencies, political parties, the media, civil society and the electorate- to further strengthen the integrity of the electoral process in the country.’

“The President reassures the nation that the commitment of the current administration towards having credible elections remains unshaken,” Shehu said.

Meanwhile, also reacting to Senator Adeleke’s emergence as winner of the Osun governorship election, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola Ogbeni Aregbesola, who is a sworn political enemy of the incumbent state governor, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, took to his Facebook page to declare that the ‘Most High ruleth in the affairs of men.’

Aregbesola, a Muslim, and also member of the APC has been at dagger drawn with the governor, Alhaji Oyetola for months since the conduct of the controversial state primary of the APC which produced the latter, a development which has further factionalised the party.

Aregbesola was also conspicuously absent during the mega rally organized by the APC in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, ahead of the now-concluded election.

However, Ogbeni’s media aides have since denied their principal posted such message on his Facebook account.