The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has reacted to the victory of Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the subsequent sacking of Gboyega Oyetola as the governor of Osun State at the tribunal on Friday 22nd March, 2019.
The party referred to the declaration of Ademola Adeleke of the PDP as winner of the Osun State governorship election as a temporary victory. This statement was released by the APC after the tribunal declared Ademola Adeleke winner of the election.
The tribunal made the declaration after hearing the petition in Abuja. The tribunal which was originally seating in Osogbo, the Osun State capital relocated to Abuja over fears of insecurity.
The three-man tribunal ruled that the PDP candidate won the election on the first ballot and that the rerun election which saw the APC upturning the votes was illegal and unnecessary. Hence the votes scored by the APC candidate which upturned the victory of the PDP candidates was deducted hereby making Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the Osun State election.
A brief review over what transpired during the election last year shows that at the close of ballot on 19th September, 2018, the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke led the polls with a margin of 353 votes, after receiving 254,698 votes while the APC candidate, Gboyega Oyetola was runner up after he got 254,345 votes.
After the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the election inconclusive stating that the margin of lead of 353 by the candidate of the PDP is less than the cancelled votes of 3,498 from seven (7) polling units and the election was declared inconclusive.
The commission organized a supplementary election for the seven (7) affected polling units which saw the victory of the candidate of the PDP upturned by the APC candidate. After the 27th September, 2018, the APC candidate scored a total of 255,505 votes while the PDP candidate scored a total of 255,023 votes.
Being dissatisfied by the decision of INEC, the PDP and Ademola Adeleke filed a petition at the tribunal to challenge the position of INEC. After considering evidence before it, the tribunal, however, ruled that the said supplementary election was illegal and unnecessary thereby declaring Ademola Adeleke the governor of Osun State.
In reacting to the decision, the publicity secretary of the APC in Osun State, Kunle Oyatomi, said the decision cannot stand “superior legal scrutiny,” and appealed to all the supporters of the APC to remain calm.
It his words he stated that, “We are going to appeal the judgment by the grace of God and we are sure the judgment cannot stand.” He added that, “This is a temporary setback for us, we know, but we know this judgment will be overturned either by the Appeal Court or at the Supreme Court. So there is no reason why anyone should fret at this point, we appeal to our supporters and members to be calm.
