Following the appeal court judgement on Friday over the disputed July 16, 2022 gubernatorial election in Osun State, a false claim has circulated online that the court has declared Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
The Osun state election petition tribunal had in January 2023 annulled Adeleke’s victory and affirmed Gboyega Oyetola of the APC as the authentic winner of the poll. This was coming several months after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had returned Adeleke as the winner of the poll.
Adeleke polled 403,371 votes to defeat then-incumbent Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, who got 375,027 votes.
But Oyetola and the APC rejected the result of the poll and headed for the tribunal where the Justice Tertse Kume-led tribunal annulled Adeleke’s victory and declared Oyetola the winner of the poll. However, Adeleke later appealed the tribunal judgement.
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A Twitter user, @cbngov_akin1, tweeted the claim with a caption thus:
“BREAKING NEWS: Court of Appeal Declares Oyetola Winner of Osun Governorship election. Imole tiii luleee.”
Another Twitter user, BATPROJECT23, tweeted the claim with a similar caption that read:
“Court of Appeal Declares Oyetola Winner of Osun Governorship election…..”
A Facebook page, Naija Gist Hub, also posted the claim with a caption that read:
“Breaking News: Court of Appeal Declares Oyetola Winner of Osun Governorship election next is Supreme Court and it is the final.”
The posts with the claim have gone viral, hence this check.
CLAIM
Court of Appeal declares Gboyega Oyetola as the winner of July 16, Osun state gubernatorial election.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Credible media reports from The ICIR and The Punch show that the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Friday (March 24) set aside the judgement of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal that annulled Adeleke’s victory at the Osun state governorship election held on July 16, 2022.
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According to the reports, the three-member panel of justices held that the election tribunal erred when it ruled that the 1st and 2nd respondents (Gboyega Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress) proved their allegation of over-voting.
The panel of judges therefore upheld the election of Ademola Adeleke as the duly elected governor of Osun State.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the appeal court declares Gboyega Oyetola of the APC as the winner of July 16 Osun state gubernatorial election is FALSE; credible media reports show that the appeal court upholds Ademola Adeleke of the PDP as the winner of the election.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
