The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) challenged the Election Petition led by Justice T. A. Kume’s ruling.
Yesterday, INEC submitted the plea to the Court of Appeal in Akure through Senior Advocate of Nigeria Paul Ananaba, the organization’s attorney. The electoral body claimed that the tribunal committed a legal error by failing to take into account and rule on the various preliminary objections filed by the first respondent challenging the petition’s competency and the tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear the petition but instead moving on to decide the petition’s merit.
Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun State, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who filed the petition, criticized the election body for declaring Ademola Adeleke, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the winner of the state’s governorship election on July 16 on July 17, 2022.
Oyetola claimed that Adeleke’s eligibility to run for office and overvoting were the foundations of the APC’s petition with reference number EPT/OS/GOV/01/2022. On January 27, 2023, the tribunal ruled that Oyetola was the state’s duly elected governor.
The appellant claimed that Section 47(2) of the Electoral Act of 2022, which must be read consciously, communally, and holistically to determine the genuine intention of the legislature and justice, was completely misinterpreted by the tribunal.
To have the petition dismissed or struck out for lack of competence and jurisdiction, INEC requested that the Appeal Court issued an order overturning the entirety of the trial tribunal’s ruling.
