WILL ADELEKE RETURN AS GOVERNOR ?(pt. 1)

On the 27^th of January, 2023, the Osun’s state election tribunal presided over by Hon. Justice T.A. Kume delivered a Judgment that created an uproar on the internet and on the streets of Nigeria. Some cast their anger at the Judges; saying untold things about the Nigerian judiciary, others were angered at the electoral body, believing that the mistake was theirs, and others were very happy with the decision. The decision being that the popular Adeleke Ademola Jackson Nurudeen who was declared as winner of the Osun State Governorship election held on July 16^th, 2022, did not score the majority of lawful votes cast at the said election, and hence his declaration and return as governor was null and void. The Tribunal also ordered that the electoral body withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mr. Adeleke and issue same to Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola.

After reading the over 110 pages judgment of the Tribunal I deem it important to bring to your attention some certain things.

The first the thing you have to know is that, in an election tribunal, there are three Judges known as “members”. The Chairman/presiding member, and two others. These three men (which can include a women) must each give his/her individual Judgment. In other words, after listening to the evidence of each party to the case, there MUST be three distinct judgments from the three different members. The winner is determined by who has the majority on his side. Being that three is an odd number, there will always be a winner. It is either 3-0, or 2-1.

This particular tribunal, was made of Hon. Justice T.A. Kume (the Chairman, aka, the presiding Judge), Hon. Justice B.A. Ogbuli and Asbi Bashir (CM). It is only expected that each of these three would give their separate judgment. This however did not seem to be the case to me.

The Chairman, Hon. Justice T.A. Kume, held in his lengthy judgment (of over a 100 pages) that the Petitioners (Adegboyega Oyetola and the All Progressive Congress) won the said Election. He equally gave his reasons for allowing the Petitioners’ case to stand.  His Judgment was co-signed by Rabi Bashir (the third member). However, Hon. Justice B.A. Ogbuli, held that the Petitioners (Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola and the All Progressive Congress) did not prove their case, and dismissed the Petition, thereby leaving the 2^nd Respondent (Adeleke) as winner of the Election.

Here lies the first problem. In our judicial system, I have never seen anything like co-signing by judges. Every law report you would ever read would always have different ruling (Judgment). If a Judge agrees with the judgment of another, all he has to do is write in his own judgment something as small as this “I HAVE READ THE JUDGMENT OF MY LEARNED BROTHER, AND I HEREBY AGREE WITH HIM” and then sign. Simple. But for some reason, Rabi Bashir (CM) did not do that. This is a fundamental error. This means, Oyetola had one in his favour, and Adeleke had one in his favour. The deal breaker would have been Rabi Bashir (CM)’s judgment, and it was not expressly given. That is to say, we have two out of three. There is no deal breaker here.

The question is, who then won at the Tribunal? Are the Petitioners rejoicing and claiming victory because it was the Chairman’s Judgment was co-signed by the other member? To me, this would be a serious issue at the Court of Appeal, as there was no quorum formed.

In the part two of this topic, I will give my opinion on the Presiding Member’s judgment, and my take as to whether Adeleke stands a chance in retaining his seat.