CHIMA CENTUS NWEZE, JSC (DELIVERING THE LEADING JUDGMENT): My Lords, the proceedings, which culminated into this appeal, were prompted by the divergent responses to the outcome of the election which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted in Osun State on August 9, 2014. In the said election, the first appellant in this appeal, who was sponsored by the second appellant, a registered political party was the latter's Governorship candidate.
On the other hand, the first respondent herein was the candidate of the second respondent in the said election. Sequel to the third respondent's declaration of the results and return of the first respondent as the winner in the keenly-contested election, the petitioners beseeched the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, Osun State (in this judgment, simply, referred to as "the trial Tribunal") with a petition challenging the declaration and return of the first respondent in seventeen out of the thirty Local Government Areas …