The Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 18, delivered judgement in the governorship election in Oyo state declaring Governor Seyi Makinde as the actual winner of the exercise held on March 9.
The news has caused jubilation in Ibadan and other parts of the state, it was learned.
With the judgement, the election battle between Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Adebayo Adelabu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been laid to rest.
OyoAffairs reports that the ruling was granted by Justice Ukaego Mary Peter-Odili, who presided over the ruling at the Supreme Court in Abuja.
The Supreme Court’s decision on the appeal of Makinde was a unanimous decision of the judges.
The judges declared that the appeal court carried out a miscarriage of justice in its ruling on the case earlier brought before it.
In a first reaction that greeted the victory, the Oyo State Development Advocacy group (OSDAG), has congratulated the Governor Makinde.
The OSDAG, in a statement by Michael Ogunsina, its spokesperson, recalled that Makinde defeated Adelabu with over 150,000 votes.
According to the group, the people of Oyo are fortunate to have voted for Makinde and stood by him during the journey from the tribunal to the Supreme Court.
“This mandate was freely given to him and there should not be any dispute in the first place,” the group said while calling on the opposition APC to accept the verdict in good faith.
The group thanked the Supreme Court for not going down the path capable of setting the state on fire.
The group said Makinde deserves more support now that he is fully settling down for governance. It also tasked the governor to extend the olive branch to the opposition.
OyoAfairs reports that the ruling was granted same day that the Supreme Court delivered judgement on the election victories of Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and his counterpart in Nasarawa, Abdullahi Sule as governors of their respective states.