Uneasy calm has enveloped Osun State as the Supreme Court, sitting in Abuja, will deliver its judgment on the state governorship election which was held on September 22, 2018 and the rerun poll a week later.
It was reliably gathered that the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its main challenger, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), believe that the judgment would favour them.
Investigation further revealed that one of the parties has purchased a uniform fabric, popularly called ‘aso ebi’, for its members to make their dresses for celebrating the expected victory.
Some local drummers and musicians have been hired by both parties in contention while the campaign office of Governor Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola, nicknamed ‘Ilerioluwa’, is alive and full of activities as members of the ruling party were seen milling around to get information and directive from party chieftains.
Ditto the country home of Senator Ademola Adeleke in Ede, as well as the PDP secretariat along Osogbo-Ikirun road as party members besieged the places to get update on today’s judgment.
Ahead of the judgment, both parties have engaged the services of clerics, alfas, and traditional spiritualists to pray and seek the face of God for a positive judgment from the seven-man panel of the Supreme Court.
Various socio-political associations and groups have also been gripped with anxiety and have resorted to prayers for favoured judgment.
Some individuals, local political analysts, and members of parties were seen in groups discussing what is likely going to be the verdict of the Supreme Court on the matter.
Following the tensed situation in the state, security operatives, including the police, army, civil defence, and DSS were seen moving round major streets of Osogbo and other major towns in the state in what could be described as a show of strength.
The Court of Appeal judgment, it would be recalled, upturned the verdict of the State Election Petition Tribunal which had declared Senator Adeleke of the PDP as the winner of the governorship election.
The Court of Appeal held that the irregular composition of judges of the lower tribunal, where the judge who delivered the majority judgment, Justice Peter Obiorah, was absent in the proceedings of the lower court, affected the right of the appellant to fair hearing.
The five-member panel of justices, which was presided over by Justice Jummai Sankey, also upheld 10 out of the 12 issues raised by Governor Oyetola of the APC that the lower tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to entertain some of the grounds of the petition brought by Adeleke over the election.
It held that, having ruled that the claims of over-voting and voiding of valid votes were unproven by the tribunal in the 17 polling units out of 3,010 polling units in the state, the non-compliance was not substantial to proceed to compute and deduct votes.
But Adeleke and the PDP rejected the verdict of the Court of Appeal and proceeded to the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the decision of the court which was in favour of Oyetola of the APC.
Adeleke also contended that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it upheld the appeals by APC and INEC, challenging the decision of the tribunal.
The PDP also contended that the appellate court erred when it dismissed its cross appeal, where it challenged the improper ballot counting which cost it 3, 402 and 379 votes in 23 polling units.
Adeleke and the PDP are therefore seeking a declaration that they won the election by a wider margin than what was found by the lower tribunal in view of what they called the substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2010, as amended.
Daily independent
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