The Supreme Court has affirmed Gboyega Oyetola as the authentic winner of the 2018 Osun State governorship election.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, lost his appeal before the apex court during its ruling on Friday, July 5, 2019.

Adeleke and the PDP had filed an appeal before the court after they lost to Oyetola and his All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Court of Appeal.

In May 2019, the Court of Appeal had upheld Oyetola’s victory after an election tribunal initially ruled, in March, that Adeleke won the election.

The appellate court had ruled that the alleged absence of Justice Peter Obiorah, who read the election tribunal’s majority judgement, during a previous sitting when two witnesses testified and tendered exhibits nullified the tribunal’s judgement.

Oyetola had argued that the judge could not have seen the two witnesses and properly examined them properly, making it unlawful for him to have authored a judgement in which he reviewed the evidence given by the witnesses.

In the split 5-2 decision of the seven-member panel on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld this technicality, paving the way for Oyetola to serve out the rest of his tenure after he was sworn in last year.

Details soon.