The Court of Appeal hearing the governorship electoral dispute between the Governor-Elect, Senator Adeleke of the PDP, and former Governor of Osun State, Mr. Oyetola of the APC has nullified Mr. Oyetola’s petition and reversed the decision of the Governorship Election Tribunal that earlier ruled in favor of former Governor Oyetola.

According to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) (CFRN) and Electoral Act 2022, election disputes shall be determined in this order:

• National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly Election Tribunals for each state of the federation and the FCT shall entertain electoral petitions on National Assembly and House of Assembly elections (Section 285(1) CFRN).
• Governorship Election Tribunals for each state of the federation shall entertain electoral petitions on for governorship elections (Section 285(2) CFRN).
• The Area Council Election Tribunal shall entertain electoral petitions into the office of the Chairman and Councilors within the FCT. (Section 131(1) Electoral Act 2022)
• The Court of Appeal shall entertain and adjudicate petitions against presidential, national assembly and governorship elections appeal (Section 239(1) CFRN). As for the National and State Assembly election tribunal judgments, the decision of the Court of Appeal is final.
• The Supreme Court – Since tribunal judgments are appealable, litigants who are dissatisfied with rulings delivered by election tribunals or courts of first instance can appeal to the Court of Appeal as a matter of constitutional right. Appeals arising from the decision of the Court of Appeal in respect of to both the Presidential and Governorship elections shall be heard by the Supreme Court, which is the Court of last resort and the final arbiter.

As the Constitution allows and given the grounds for upturning the decision of the Court of first instance, I suspect that the former governor, Mr. Oyetola of the APC might be heading to the Supreme Court.

In its ruling the Court of Appeal supported Senator Adeleke’s argument that there was no majority judgment as the second judge on the panel, Rabi Bashir, failed to write her opinion as required by section 294(2) of the constitution. The Court of Appeal also supported Senator Adeleke’s argument that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to preside over the petition on the grounds that it failed to consider the preliminary objection Senator Adeleke filed against Mr. Oyetola and the APC. This is strange as the Court also acknowledged that the Tribunal had the right to suspend decisions on preliminary objections until the end of the matter. However, the Court noted that the tribunal did not show in writing that it considered Senator Adeleke’s preliminary objection on its merit.

The most important issue that I suspect that Mr. Oyetola and the APC might take before the Supreme Court revolves around the issue of over-voting. The Court of Appeal, in setting aside the Tribunal’s judgement, noted that Mr. Oyetola and the APC did not prove the allegation of over-voting through the tendering of the BVAS machines, the calling of witnesses and experts to testify on over-voting but by relying only on the table showing over-voting without resort to the INEC’s voter register.

In view of the above, I dare say that in the matter of Adeleke versus Oyetola, it is too early for the Senator and the PDP to rejoice.