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The Osun governorship election tribunal appears to have mocked Ademola Adeleke’s dancing abilities.
Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, was declared the winner of the July 2022 governorship election.
Former Osun governor Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) petitioned the tribunal in August 2022 to challenge Adeleke’s victory.
Among other things, Oyetola claimed that there was overvoting in 749 polling units spread across 10 LGAs in the state.
In a decision issued on Friday, two of the tribunal’s three members concluded that the petitioner had established that there was indeed over-voting in some of the polling units.
As a result, the tribunal’s majority decision ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Adeleke and issue a new one to Oyetola as the duly-elected governor of Osun.
“For the sake of emphasis, after the said deduction of the invalid votes, the total lawful votes for each of the candidates is 314,931 for the first petitioner and 290,666 for the second respondent,” Tetsea Kume, who read the majority decision, said.
“Consequently, the second respondent did not score a majority of lawful votes cast at the election. The declaration and return are thus null and void.
“The second respondent cannot ‘go lo lo lo lo’ and ‘buga won’ as the duly elected governor of Osun state in the election conducted on the 16th day of July, 2022. See the song ‘Buga’ by Kizz Daniel.
“Rather, we hereby hold that the first petitioner received a majority of lawful votes in the said election and is hereby returned as such.
“It is hereby directed that the first respondent withdraw the certificate of return issued to the second respondent and issue it to the first petitioner as the duly elected governor of Osun state.”
Meanwhile, the tribunal’s reference to “go lo lo lo” and “buga won” appears to be a reference to Adeleke’s November 2022 dance to a song by Nigerian artiste, Kizz Daniel.
Adeleke danced to the song while speaking at the government secretariat on his first day as governor, while the audience cheered.
Meanwhile, Adeleke has condemned the decision, calling it a miscarriage of justice.
He also stated that the judgment would be challenged in court of appeals.