•Adeleke and Oyebamiji
The legal team of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State has disowned a petition filed on behalf of the party challenging the victory of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, in the August 15 governorship poll.
Speaking exclusively with our correspondent on behalf of the legal team in a telephone interview today, one of the leaders of the team, Adekunle Adegoke (SAN), insisted that no petition was filed on behalf of the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, and the party before the tribunal, reports The PUNCH.
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 further said 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 4 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Dr Biodun Layoonu (SAN), Dr Yomi Aliyu (SAN), myself, Kunle Adegoke (SAN) and Dr Muritala Abdulrasheed (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,” Adegoke said.
He added, “Our client, having willingly, without pressure, without duress, congratulated Governor Adeleke, do you now think it will be legitimate as a man of honour for 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.”
It was earlier learnt that the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party filed petitions challenging the outcome of the August 15 governorship poll in the state.
Fifteen political parties fielded candidates in the election, but the PDP did not present a candidate for the poll.
The notices of the two petitions were displayed on the notice board of the tribunal, located at the premises of the State High Court in Osogbo, on Monday.
According to the notices signed by the Tribunal Secretary, Belemo Diete-Spiff, in the first petition, the Osun APC governorship candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, and the All Progressives Congress were the petitioners, while Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission were the respondents in the suit with the number EPT/Os/Gov/01/2026.
In the second petition with the number EPT/Os/Gov/02/2026, the Peoples Democratic Party was the petitioner, while the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Accord Party and Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke were the respondents.
