Tribunal verdict in Osun and what it portends for 2023 Elections

With less than one month to the general elections scheduled to hold on February 25, the verdict of the Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal on Friday nullifying the July 16 governorship election on the basis of over-voting even with the deployment of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System is raising concerns in the polity.

It, therefore, instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and his deputy, Kola Adewusi and directed that the certificate of return be issued to Oyetola instead. In the judgement on Friday, the tribunal held that INEC did not comply substantially with the constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.

Sections 47 of the 2022 Electoral Act says that to vote, the presiding officer shall use the smart card reader or any other technological device that maybe prescribed by the Commission for the accreditation of voters to “verify, authenticate the intending voter in the manner prescribed by the Commission.”

But INEC has continued to allay such fear, maintaining that with BVAS and the new Electoral Act, rigging and manipulation of the electoral process was no longer possible. He said the defence by the respondents on the over-voting was unreliable and blamed INEC for producing contradictory results, stating that it put a question mark on the readiness of the Commission to conduct credible elections.

Justice Kume said, “In other words, the defences of the respondents are taint with fundamental flaws; they are irreconcilable and unreliable, incapable of defeating the credible evidence tendered by the petitioners in respect of the 744 polling units where over-voting has been established. “The said conduct of the respondents, especially the first respondent, amounts to tampering with official records. The conduct of the first respondent in the said election under consideration has produced multiple accusation reports, contrary to vote declaration to conduct of free, fair and credible elections on the basis of one man or woman with one vote.

But in a minority decision, a member of the panel, Justice A. Ogbuli, dismissed Oyetola’s petition, saying the primary source of data on Election Day, which were the BVAS machines, should have been relied on by the panel instead of BVAS reports brought by the petitioners.

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