The legal battle over the August 15, 2026 Osun State governorship election has taken a fresh turn following conflicting claims over the authority behind the petition challenging the re-election of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
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Counsel who filed the petition on behalf of the All Progressives Congress and its governorship ticket has insisted that the action was properly instituted and personally signed by the party’s deputy governorship candidate, Kayode Adereti, despite an earlier statement by another senior lawyer distancing the APC and its governorship candidate, Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, from the case.
Oyebamiji and the APC are listed as petitioners in the case challenging Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The petition is marked EPT/OS/GOV/01/2026 and was filed through a legal team led by Oluseyi Oyagbile.
Controversy, however, arose after Dr. Abiodun Layonu, SAN, in a statement purportedly issued on behalf of the APC legal team, said neither the party nor its governorship candidate authorised the filing.
“Our clients and the entire legal team were shocked to read the purported petition, as neither the candidate nor the party authorised the filing of same,” Layonu said.
“We hereby denounce in absolute terms the purported petition filed in the name of APC and its gubernatorial candidate.
“We urge our members and the general public to discountenance the purported petition as same did not emanate from the legal team.”
Oyagbile, however, rejected the suggestion that the petition was unauthorised, maintaining that the deputy governorship candidate who contested the election on a joint ticket with Oyebamiji personally instructed the action and signed the petition.
“If you visit the Tribunal and you examine the petition, you will discover that it was signed by the deputy governorship candidate of the party, Kayode Adereti,” he said.
“I don’t know about the lawyers you are talking about, and I don’t know the circumstances in which they were briefed or not briefed.”
Oyagbile said he accepted the brief on the understanding that Adereti, having contested the election as deputy governorship candidate on the same ticket as Oyebamiji, had sufficient legal standing to initiate an election petition.
“I filed the petition based on the understanding that the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the party has the locus to file an election petition, considering the fact that he is on a joint ticket with the candidate.
“He could have been seconded to go and sign it. So, considering the fact that somebody with locus briefed me to represent him in a case, I don’t see any reason why I should start consulting other lawyers.
“The man has a right to hire any lawyer that pleases him,” he said.
The lawyer further maintained that Adereti personally appeared and signed the petition, arguing that the fact that another legal team may not have been aware of the filing did not, in his view, invalidate the instructions he received.
“Somebody tells me to file the case, I file the case; he appeared personally to sign it; I don’t see any problem with that.
“If the party decided that they don’t want to be a part of the case or they want it to be withdrawn, that is not a problem. That is something else entirely,” Oyagbile said.
He also questioned the suggestion that a particular set of lawyers had to be consulted before an election petition could be filed.
“First of all, I don’t know anything about any APC legal team, and secondly, I don’t know of any law that says it is a particular lawyer that must be called for a particular case.
“Anybody can hire any lawyer for any case. So, if they say they are not aware of it, then I don’t know; maybe they have a right to say that. But I don’t know what says they must be aware of it,” he said.
The conflicting accounts have introduced a preliminary legal question into the substantive challenge to Adeleke’s re-election: whether the petition was properly authorised and whether the individual who instructed counsel and signed it had the legal standing to commence the action in the manner it was filed.
That issue is now expected to form part of the questions that may arise before the tribunal as proceedings begin.
The tribunal will ultimately be required to determine the competence and merits of the petition, including any objections relating to its authorisation, standing or representation.
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