The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has formally commenced proceedings, treating disputes from the August 15 governorship election.
It has, therefore, displayed two petitions from All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party challenging Adeleke’s re-election.
In another development, the APC legal team in Osun has denied a petition filed on behalf of the party challenging Adeleke’s victory.
The petitions filed by the APC and the PDP were pasted on the notice board of the tribunal secretariat in Osogbo, on Monday.
Secretary of the Tribunal, Pefe Belemore, confirmed that petitions challenging the outcome of the election had been filed before the tribunal.
At the opening of the tribunal, Belemore was in the courtroom alongside other officials of the secretariat as preparations were made for the commencement of proceedings.
The APC petition, marked EPT/OS/GOV/01/2026, was filed by its candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, against Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The PDP petition, with suit number EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026, was filed by Adebayo Olugbenga Adedamola against Adeleke, INEC and the Accord Party.
The display of the petitions is expected to set in motion the legal process, including the service of processes on parties and subsequent proceedings before the tribunal.
Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the team, Adekunle Adegoke, SAN, has noted that no petition was filed on behalf of the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, and the party before the tribunal.
Adegoke, who said the legal team met Oyebamiji and other party leaders shortly after the results of the poll were released to discuss the next line of action, further noted that the decision not to challenge the outcome of the poll was taken after consultations.
He stressed that the decision not to approach the tribunal was based on the need to de-escalate tension and allow peace to reign in the state.
“Right from the second day of the election, at the level of the legal team being led by about four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Dr Biodun Layoonu, SAN, Dr Yomi Aliyu, SAN, myself, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, and Dr MuritalaAbdulrasheed, SAN.
“We also have other legal luminaries, Professors of law in the legal team, Prof Mojeed Alabi and many others, and we advised our client that the best in this circumstance is for us not to go to the tribunal.
“The legal team has been in existence for more than seven years now. When we are going into an election, and the result of the election is being announced, we know where there are loopholes, we know what we can challenge.
“At this particular point in time, we want to prove to the minds of the people that at the level of the APC, we are not termagants; we are not just litigious people who are just interested in causing brouhaha in the populace.
“We don’t have anything personal against Nurudeen Adeleke the governor, or any other person in another party, whether PDP or Accord.
“We are principled, and when we want to challenge or fight for something, we fight on the basis of principle. That is one thing we want to make clear to the people. And when we decided that we are not going to the Tribunal, we needed to let our client understand why we had taken that decision.
“We took our client through a gamut of our findings. It’s not like maybe the election was free; it doesn’t mean there were no malpractices. There are valid grounds to challenge the result of the election, and we decided to let the populace rest.
“Let there be some peace and our client said yes; if it’s going to take us another four years to get things together for the people of Osun, let us allow it. And that is the decision we took.
“Right from the second day, 16th of August, when the result of the election was announced, that is why we allowed time to play out a little before our client came out and congratulated the Governor Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke.
“Our client, having willingly, without pressure, without duress, congratulated Governor Adeleke, do you now think it will be legitimate as a man of honourfor Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji to go behind and authorise the filing of a petition? The petition is just a piece of paper without good substance.
“No good petition will come from a seasoned election petition lawyer that will contain such a penchant for context. It is never done. I want to be on record that the APC legal team has denounced the bundle of papers filed by some individuals masquerading as APC lawyers. It was not authorised by APC as a party or its candidate.”
