Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has secured an unchallenged victory in the August 15 governorship election as none of the defeated candidates or their political parties approached the election tribunal before the expiration of the 21-day filing period.
The deadline for challenging the result elapsed on Saturday, with the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal receiving no petition from any of the 14 other political parties that participated in the election.
Adeleke, who contested under the Accord platform, was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission Returning Officer, Prof Joshua Ogunwole, after polling 511,067 votes.
His closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, recorded 444,815 votes.
Although 15 political parties fielded candidates in the election, none has sought judicial review of the result since the poll was concluded.
The election petition tribunal had commenced operations at the premises of the Osun State High Court in Oke Fia, Osogbo, shortly after the declaration of the results to receive petitions from aggrieved candidates and parties.
The tribunal registry was still open for business on Saturday, the final day for filing, but an official confirmed that no petition had been lodged against the election.
The development came as the APC appeared to have opted for political reconciliation rather than litigation. A member of the party’s legal team, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to comment, said the party had considered challenging the result but eventually decided against it.
He said, “We have grounds to challenge Adeleke’s election. However, after discussions between the party leadership and the legal team, we decided not to file a petition.
“Power belongs to God, and He gives it to whoever He chooses. We took the decision in the interest of peace.”
The Osun Accord chairman, Victor Akande, described the absence of petitions as a positive development for the state and democracy.
Akande said opposition candidates had shown political maturity by accepting the election outcome rather than seeking to overturn it through the courts.
He said, “We appreciate the maturity displayed by the opposition candidates in accepting the outcome of the election.
“For democracy to thrive, elections should ideally end at the polling units. Going to court to reclaim a mandate is not always the best option for democracy.”
Also speaking, the Social Democratic Party governorship candidate, Olugbenga Ajala, said he had no reason to challenge the election because he believed the process was sufficiently credible.
Ajala said the result should be accepted because, in his assessment, the election was conducted fairly and produced a deserving winner.
“If the election had not been fair enough, we would have gone to the tribunal. But we believe the process was fair and transparent enough, and that is why no candidate or party has filed a petition,” he said.
