By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday affirmed the election of Gboyega Oyetola as duly elected governor of Osun State in the September 22, 2018 Osun governorship race.
In a split decision of five against two, the 7-member panel led by Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko declared Oyetola as winner of the September 22 and 27, 2019 general election.
The PDP and its candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke had challenged the declaration of Oyetola of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as elected governor of Osun State at the Election Petition Tribunal and won.
The APC and Oyetola proceeded to Appeal Court which ruled in their favour, thus nullifying the judgement of the Election Tribunal which had earlier ruled in favour of Adeleke.
Gboyega and APC approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of Appeal Court.
The supreme court said the judge who had read the majority judgement at the tribunal, Peter Obiora, was evidently absent on February 6th, 2019, following the documents before the court.
It agreed with the appeal court that the absence of Justice Obiora when a key witness in the petition was heard has rendered the judgment of the trial tribunal a nullity.
And that the failure of Mr Obiora to be present on that day meant that the tribunal lacked the authorities to have given any judgment on the matter.
Justice Bode Rhodes- Vivour who delivered the majority judgment supported by five of the seven-justice of the Apex court panel held that it is settled law that when the rightly constituted panel of a court does not seat the activities carried out by that panel is a nullity.
The Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad and three other members consented to the lead majority judgment.
But Justice Kumai Akaahs and Justice Paul Galinje affirmed PDP as the winner of the poll.
Justice Akaahs in his minority judgment held that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in an election ought to remain an unbias umpire because even when it erred in law by relying on it’s manual to cancel some aspect of the election, the applicant still met the constitutional requirements of having the highest votes cast and spread.
But the Election umpire went ahead to cancel the election and carried out a rerun showing that INEC had a plan up its sleeves