Osun Tribunal: My Victory Shows INEC Needs to Improve Its Processes, Says Oyetola

Gboyega Oyetola, the immediate past governor of Osun, says the verdict of the election petition tribunal which validated his victory in the July 16, 2022 governorship election, shows that there are anomalies in the voting process deployed by electoral body INEC.

“INEC is the greatest beneficiary of the judgement,” said Mr Oyetola who flew the flag of the All Progressives Congress in the election. “It will afford them the opportunity to look at all the anomalies and make necessary adjustments to prevent such mistakes now that the general elections are coming.”

Nigerians will head to the polls on February 25 and March 11 for national and state elections, respectively.

On Friday, a majority ruling by the three-man Osun Elections Petition Tribunal held that the July 16 elections conducted by INEC did not comply with the Electoral Act which came into force in 2022.

Following the passage of the Electoral Act, Osun was one of the few states where INEC first deployed its recently introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which it claimed was fraud-proof.

But the Justice Tersea Kume-led panel found that there was indeed over-voting in 774 polling units in 10 local government areas in the state.

He said it was the duty of the tribunal to deduct the valid votes cast from the over-voting and therefore awarded victory to Mr Oyetola after retabulating the figures to score him 314,931 votes as against Governor Ademola Adeleke’s 290,266 votes.

A minority judge, however, ruled that Mr Adeleke won the election.

Mr Oyetola, while speaking with reporters in his country home, Iragbiji, said “it is a collective victory for our state and our nation’s democracy.”

Mr Adeleke, however, vowed to appeal the judgement which he described as a miscarriage of justice.

(NAN)