Osun Poll: No Petition Filed as 21-Day Tribunal Window Closes

The 21-day period allowed for challenging the outcome of the August 15 Osun State governorship election has expired without any petition being filed before the election petition tribunal.

The filing window closed on Saturday, with none of the 14 political parties that lost the election submitting a petition to contest the result.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, who contested on the platform of the Accord Party, the winner of the election. The State Returning Officer, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, announced Adeleke as the winner after he secured 511,067 votes.

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

A total of 15 political parties fielded candidates in the election.

Following the declaration of the results, the election petition tribunal office was opened at the premises of the Osun State High Court in Oke Fia, Osogbo, to receive petitions from candidates or political parties dissatisfied with the outcome.

However, on Saturday, the final day for filing petitions, the tribunal registry remained open but no petition was received.

A staff member at the tribunal confirmed the development to journalists, stating that no petition had been filed as of the close of the stipulated period.

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

However, a member of the APC legal team, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly, said the party had grounds to challenge the election but decided against doing so in the interest of peace.

According to him, the party hierarchy and its legal team deliberated on the matter before reaching the decision not to approach the tribunal.

“Not that we don’t have grounds to challenge Adeleke’s election. There are good grounds to challenge the outcome of the poll. But the party hierarchy and the legal team, after deliberations, resolved not to file any petition.

“Power belongs to God, and He gives whoever He wants. We decided not to file any petition in the interest of peace,” he said.

Reacting to the development, the Osun State Chairman of the Accord Party, Victor Akande, described the decision by opposition candidates not to challenge the result as a demonstration of political maturity.

Akande said the decision was beneficial to democracy, noting that elections should ideally end at the polling units when participants are satisfied with the credibility of the process.

He said, “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.”

Also speaking, the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Olugbenga Ajala, said the election and the processes leading to the declaration of the result were considered fair enough.

Ajala said the outcome had been accepted because he believed the process was sufficiently credible and that the best candidate had emerged.

He said, “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, and we also believe that the President is fair enough.

“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 with any petition.”

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