*Floors Oyetola again
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Supreme Court yesterday, affirmed Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) as the validly elected Governor of Osun State.
In its lead judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme court dismissed the appeal by Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) against Governor Adeleke’s election victory .
According to the Supreme Court,
though Alhaji Oyetola alleged that Gov Adeleke won through over-voting that occurred in 774 polling units in the state, he, however, failed to produce any Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, a machine that was used in any of the polling units to prove his allegation.
“It is glaring that the Appellant did not provide in evidence, any BVAS, but sought to prove over-voting by means of a report of examination of INEC’s database or backend server”, it held,
The apex court stressed that since it was not in dispute that the BVAS contain a record of accredited voters, “it is, therefore, the only direct and primary record of voters accredited at polling units on election day”.
Supreme court in the judgement held that nothing in either Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 or Regulations 18- 23 of the INEC’s Regulations, made it mandatory for Presiding Officers in an election to transmit by BVAS, the number of accredited voters in each polling unit to the backend server.
Dismissing evidence of purported expert witnesses that testified in Alhaji Oyeyola’s favour, the Supreme court said it found no reason to set aside the verdict of the Court of Appeal which upheld Adeleke’s election victory.
It will be recalled that the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on January 27, in a split decision, voided the declaration of Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the winner of the gubernatorial election.
