…A point of concern over Display of case Number credited to APC and PDP
The All Progressives Congress (APC) legal team in Osun State has distanced itself from a petition challenging Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the August 15, 2026 governorship election, insisting that neither the party nor its candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, authorised the filing.
The development came on Monday, September 7, 2026, shortly after notices of two petitions were displayed at the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo.
Speaking in a telephone interview with PUNCH on Monday, one of the leaders of the APC legal team, Adekunle Adegoke (SAN), said the lawyers had advised Oyebamiji and the party leadership against challenging the election result at the tribunal. The PUNCH report was published at 6:39 p.m. on Monday.
Adegoke said the legal team met with Oyebamiji and other party leaders shortly after the election results were announced to review the outcome and determine the next course of action.
According to him, after considering the circumstances surrounding the election, the team concluded that pursuing a legal challenge could further heighten tension in the state. It therefore advised the APC candidate to allow the matter to rest in the interest of peace.
The senior lawyer, however, stressed that the decision not to approach the tribunal should not be interpreted as an indication that the election was completely free of irregularities.
He said the legal team had identified issues which could have provided grounds for challenging the result but deliberately chose not to pursue litigation, saying the priority was to promote peace and reduce political tension in Osun State.
Adegoke also pointed to Oyebamiji’s subsequent congratulatory message to Adeleke as evidence of the candidate’s acceptance of the decision reached after consultations with the legal team.
He questioned why Oyebamiji, having willingly congratulated Adeleke, would later authorise the filing of a petition challenging the governor’s victory.
The lawyer further said the APC legal team had rejected the documents filed by individuals who, according to him, presented themselves as lawyers acting for the party. He insisted that the purported petition was not authorised by either the APC or its governorship candidate.
The controversy followed the display of two petitions at the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo on Monday. According to the tribunal notices, the first petition, numbered EPT/Os/Gov/01/2026, listed Oyebamiji and the APC as petitioners, with Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as respondents.
A second petition, numbered EPT/Os/Gov/02/2026, listed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as petitioner against INEC, the Accord Party and Governor Adeleke. The notices were signed by the tribunal secretary, Belemo Diete-Spiff, according to the reports.
The conflicting positions have now raised questions over the status and authorship of the APC petition displayed by the tribunal. While the official notice identifies Oyebamiji and the APC as petitioners, senior members of the party’s legal team maintain that the filing was not authorised by them or the candidate.
Adegoke said the APC legal team includes several Senior Advocates of Nigeria, among them Dr Biodun Layoonu, Dr Yomi Aliyu, Kunle Adegoke and Dr Muritala Abdulrasheed, alongside other legal practitioners and academics, including Professor Mojeed Alabi.
For now, the dispute over the purported APC petition adds a new twist to the post-election process in Osun State. The tribunal notice and the legal team’s denial present conflicting accounts that will need to be clarified as the legal process progresses.
Governor Adeleke remains the declared winner of the August 15 governorship election, while the question of whether the purported APC petition was validly authorised remains unsettled based on the competing accounts available on Monday.
