The verdict pronounced by the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal chaired by Justice Tetse Kume against Sen. Ademola Adeleke of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and in favour of Mr Oyetola Adegboyega of All Progressives Congress (APC) has generated scorching ruckus and immaterial exchange of bellicose statements on social media platforms.
It will be recalled that Sen. Ademola Adeleke was proclaimed as the fortuitous megahit in the last gubernatorial election held on July 16, 2022, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). After his triumph, in his characteristic manner, began the jubilation by dancing unbeknownst to him that the appearance of the situation would metamorphose into another shape.
Like sugar attracts ants, the dancing senator’s victory attracted a flood of congratulatory letters and messages from his well-wishers, friends, supporters, etc. from all walks of life while some people, especially the political pundits admonished him on the pages of newspapers to quickly swing into action of meticulously performing the arduous responsibilities as the number one citizen of the state reminding him that governance is more than mere dancing.
Nonetheless, according to the stringent investigation and verdict recently unmasked by the Tribunal, it showed that despite the strenuous efforts of the INEC to forestall the manipulation of the gubernatorial election through the technological gadgets put into place, election rigging still played out if not so, there will not be over-voting in some polling units as claimed. It was professed that after the nullification of some invalid ballots, Oyetola of APC had 314,931 votes to defeat Adeleke’s 290,266 votes.
The manipulation of the election saga in Osun state as unveiled by the Tribunal pitched me to the speculation if the Nigeria presidential election come February 25 will be free and fair .
Olayode Inaolaji writes from Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
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