Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in the Osun State election, Adebayo Olugbenga Adedamola, popularly known as Fryo, has publicly disowned a petition challenging the re-election of Governor Ademola Adeleke, insisting that he neither filed the case nor authorised any lawyer to do so on his behalf. Adedamola made the clarification on Monday, September 7, 2026, during an appearance on TVC News, where he described the petition as "strange" and questioned how it came to be filed in his name.
"I don't know where they manufactured the petition they submitted at the tribunal," Adedamola declared, adding that he had not instructed any legal counsel to challenge the outcome of the August 15 governorship election. He further disclosed that he had endorsed Adeleke before the election and voted for him on Election Day. "In fact, I voted for Governor Adeleke on Election Day," he stated.
His comments have thrown the PDP's purported legal challenge into fresh controversy, coming after the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal displayed a petition marked EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026, which lists Adedamola as the petitioner against Adeleke, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Accord Party. Adedamola's denial raises questions over who authorised the filing and under whose instructions the lawyers presented it before the tribunal.
The development is particularly significant because Adedamola was the PDP governorship candidate produced by a faction of the party that conducted its primary in December 2025. However, the PDP was not among the parties that ultimately participated in the election, as announced by INEC. Despite this, a petition bearing his name has now surfaced before the tribunal challenging the election that returned Adeleke to office.
Adedamola's denial also comes against the backdrop of a similar controversy involving the All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Bola Oyebamiji. The APC legal team had earlier disowned a petition filed in the name of the party and Oyebamiji challenging Adeleke's victory, with one of the leaders of the APC legal team, Adekunle Adegoke, SAN, saying the party's lawyers had advised Oyebamiji against challenging the election in court after reviewing the results and alleged irregularities recorded during the poll.
Adegoke maintained that the decision was not an admission that the election was flawless, noting that the legal team believed there were grounds capable of challenging the result, but Oyebamiji accepted the advice and subsequently congratulated Adeleke after consultations. He rejected the petition attributed to the APC candidate, accusing individuals behind it of presenting themselves as members of the party's legal team without authorisation. "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 authorised by APC as a party or its candidate," Adegoke said.
INEC had declared Adeleke winner of the August 15 election after he secured victory in 19 of the state's 30 local government areas, with Oyebamiji winning in the remaining 11. As both the APC and the PDP candidate disown the petitions filed in their names, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is now facing a peculiar situation where the very individuals whose names appear on the petitions have publicly distanced themselves from the legal challenges. The question now is: who actually filed these petitions, and what happens to the tribunal proceedings when both petitioners deny authorising the cases?
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments