Osun poll: No petition filed against Adeleke’s victory

Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the August 15 Osun State governorship election has gone unchallenged at the tribunal, after the 21-day period allowed for filing petitions expired without any of the defeated candidates seeking legal redress.

The filing window closed on Saturday, with the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal confirming that it had not received any petition challenging the election result.

Fifteen political parties contested the election, but none of the 14 unsuccessful candidates approached the tribunal within the constitutionally prescribed period.

Adeleke, who contested under the Accord platform, was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission Returning Officer, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, after securing 511,067 votes.

His closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, polled 444,815 votes.

The election petition tribunal registry, established at the Osun State High Court premises in Oke Fia, Osogbo, had remained open since shortly after the election to receive petitions arising from the poll.

On Saturday, the final day for submitting petitions, the registry was open when journalists visited the premises. However, a tribunal staff member confirmed that no petition had been filed.

Attempts to obtain the reaction of the Osun APC were unsuccessful. Calls to the party’s spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, were unanswered, while a WhatsApp message seeking the party’s position had not received a response as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Osun Accord, Victor Akande, described the decision by opposition candidates not to challenge the result as a sign of political maturity.

“We appreciate the maturity of the candidates of the opposition for not challenging the outcome of the poll. That itself is good for democracy, if an election stops at the poll. The idea of going to court to regain a mandate is sometimes not good for democracy,” Akande said.

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Olugbenga Ajala, also said the election was sufficiently credible to warrant acceptance of the result.

According to Ajala, candidates would have approached the tribunal if they believed the process had been unfair.

“The election came, and it’s gone. Fair enough; we have to be content with the outcome of the poll because we believe the best candidate won,” he said.

Ajala added that the fairness of the electoral process was the reason no candidate had chosen to challenge the outcome.

“If the election has not been fair enough, we would have headed for the Tribunal, but we give thanks to God that the process can be seen by all to be very fair. That is why no party or candidate is coming forward for any petition,” he said.