The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has noted its reason for staying silent on the ruling of the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo, which nullified Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the governorship elections held on July 16, 2022.
What INEC said: Addressing questions from news men, on Monday, January 30, 2023, Barr. Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, said the court process must be allowed to take its full course.
“The governorship election tribunal is the court of first instance in election petition proceedings. The aggrieved party in this instance has signalled a wish to appeal against the ruling. It will be harmful to prejudge the outcome of the appeal.”
About Adeleke v Oyetola: Adegboyega Oyetola, a candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), had challenged Adeleke, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claiming that the latter had won due to overvoting and certificate fraud.
The tribunal acknowledged that APC’s claim of overvoting was incomplete. Still, it found evidence of overvoting in the guber election held on July 16.
The tribunal concluded that “after deducting invalid votes due to overvoting, Adegboyega Oyetola scored 314, 931 while Governor Ademola Adeleke scored 290, 666.”
What you should know: This issue has created doubts on the newly adopted BVAS.
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters at every polling unit either through facial recognition or fingerprint capture.
By this, it means under normal circumstances, anybody who is not verified by BVAS should not be able to vote.