Liborous Oshoma, a Nigerian lawyer, has analyzed the recent appeal court verdict that confirmed Ademola Adeleke’s victory as governor of Osun State.
According to Oshoma, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was initially declared the winner of the election at the tribunal because the presiding judge believed there were inconsistencies in the report provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, Oshoma argued that the INEC back-end server was faulty, and the results obtained from the server tallied with the results announced by INEC.
Oshoma explained that both the APC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) provided reports from the back-end server, which the tribunal examined and found discrepancies.
Nevertheless, the appeal court determined that the APC needed to prove their case of overvoting with witnesses from the polling units.
The lawyer highlighted that Section 47(2) stipulates that the presiding officer must use a smart card reader to verify and confirm the particulars of the intended voters.
Additionally, Section 51(2) mandates that the presiding officer should cancel the result of the election if the number of votes cast exceeds the number of accredited voters.
The tribunal declared Oyetola the winner based on inconsistencies with INEC, but Oshoma believes the decision was flawed since the BVAS report can be manipulated.
