NEWS
Osun APC Legal Team Disowns Petition Challenging Adeleke’s Governorship Victory
The Osun APC Legal Team Disowns Petition Challenging Adeleke’s Governorship Victory team of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has distanced itself from a petition purportedly filed on behalf of the party and its governorship candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, to challenge the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke in the state’s recent governorship election.
The development has sparked fresh attention around the post-election process in Osun, following the emergence of two petitions before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
According to notices signed by the Tribunal Secretary, Belemo Diete-Spiff, the first petition, numbered EPT/Os/Gov/01/2026, lists the Osun APC governorship candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, and the All Progressives Congress as petitioners.
Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were listed as respondents in the case.
The notices relating to the two petitions were displayed on the notice board of the tribunal, located within the premises of the State High Court in Osogbo, on Monday.
The second petition, numbered EPT/Os/Gov/02/2026, was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with INEC, the Accord Party and Senator Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke listed as respondents.
However, the APC’s legal team has categorically rejected any involvement in the first petition, insisting that neither the party nor its candidate authorised the filing of any case challenging the outcome of the election.
One of the leaders of the APC legal team, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Adekunle Adegoke, said the legal team had taken a deliberate decision not to approach the tribunal after carefully reviewing the election and its outcome.
Adegoke explained that the legal team, which has been handling the party’s electoral matters for several years, comprised several experienced lawyers and academics who assessed the circumstances surrounding the election before advising the APC candidate against litigation.
According to him, “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) and we have other legal luminaries Professors of law and what have you in the legal team, Prof Mojeed Alabi and many others, 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 termagant, we are not just litigious people that are just interested in causing brouhaha in the populace.
“We dont have anything personal against Nurudeen Adeleke the governor or any other person in other party whether PDP or Accord.
“We are principled and when we want to challenge or fight for something we, fight on the basis 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 out client understand why we had taken that decision.
“We took our client through a gamut of our findings. Its not like maybe the election was free, it doesn’t mean there were no malpractices. There are valid ground to challenge the result of the election and we decided let the populace rest.”
Adegoke said the decision was ultimately based on the need to give the people of Osun a period of political calm rather than plunge the state into another prolonged legal battle.
“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 allow time to play out a little before our client came out and congratulated the Governor Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke,” Adegoke said.
He further questioned how Oyebamiji, having publicly accepted and congratulated Governor Adeleke, could subsequently have authorised a petition challenging the same election result.
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 filling of a petition? The petition is just a piece of papers without good substance. No good petition will come from a seasoned election petition lawyer that will contain such a penchant 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 authorized by APC as a party.“
The legal team’s position effectively places the purported petition at odds with the stance publicly adopted by the APC candidate following the election.
Adegoke’s statement also underscores a distinction between acknowledging alleged irregularities in an election and choosing to pursue those issues through litigation. While the legal team maintained that there were grounds upon which the election could have been challenged, it said it deliberately opted for restraint in the interest of peace and political stability in Osun State.
The controversy over the petition is now likely to raise questions about who authorised its filing, the identity of those behind it and whether the tribunal will proceed to determine its legal standing.
For the APC legal team, however, the message is clear: the party’s recognised lawyers did not authorise the petition and remain committed to the decision earlier taken not to challenge Governor Adeleke’s victory before the tribunal.