PDP supporters protest, reject Osun tribunal’s verdict

Hours after the Election Petition Tribunal annulled the July 16 Osun State governorship election results and declared former governor Gboyega Oyetola the winner of the poll, some Peoples Democratic Party supporters stormed the streets to protest against the judgement.

While annulling the July 16 Osun governorship poll results, the tribunal held that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not comply with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act as amended.

The PUNCH reports The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, the winner of the July 16 election.

The Returning Officer for the election and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, announced that Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes, beating the incumbent Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, who garnered 375,027 votes in the keenly contested race.

But while delivering a majority decision judgement on Friday, Justice Tetsea Kume ruled that INEC did not comply substantially with the constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.

He subsequently deducted the over-voting observed from the votes scored by the candidates and declared that Oyetola won the election, having polled 314, 921, while Adeleke’s score came down to 290, 266.

He directed INEC to withdraw Adeleke’s certificate of return and issue another one to Oyetola who won a majority of the lawful votes.

Not satisfied with the judgement, the PDP supporters on Friday were said to have marched from the Jaleyemi area and converged at Orita Olaiya, under the flyover to protest what they termed “injustice”.

The protesters, who carried various placards with several inscriptions, insisted that Adeleke was the winner of the poll.

Some of the inscriptions read, “Tribunal Panel is not fair in their judgement’, ‘Imole has come to stay’, ‘Osun Citizens reject Oyetola’, ‘This is Injustice to Ademola Adeleke’, ‘In Imole’s mandate we stand’, among others.

(Punch)