Congratulations to Senator Ademola Adeleke as INEC finally issued him the certificate of return on Wednesday, the 20th of July as the winner of the Osun state governorship election held over the weekend; the certificate of return was issued to him four days after the election was conducted.
A certificate of return is an electoral document issued to the winner of an election, declaring the candidate the rightfully elected candidate of the election.
Mr. Adeleke, who contested the July 16 election on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 403,371 votes to defeat the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 375,027 votes, and 13 other candidates.
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Before the certificate of return was finally issued, the camp of Senator Adeleke was already agitating about why after days the election was concluded INEC is yet to issue the certificate of return, the camp of the election winner was already clamoring that INEC is breaking the law for not to have issued the certificate of return days after the election. The most vocal about the issue was David Adeleke, the megastar musician who is also the nephew of Senator Adeleke, the winner of the election. In his tweet on Tuesday, the 19th of July while poking INEC on their reason for not having issued the certificate of return to his uncle he posted this: “@inecnigeria should we send you fuel money? LOL
“Please no one should tamper with the will of the Osun People!
“Issue the certificate as required by Law!”.
This tweet gained multiple retweets and comments as numerous other online activists joined the star musician and his family in calling out INEC and its officials, accusing INEC of breaking the law for not having issued the certificate of return to the winner of the election 3 days after the election. Unfortunately, this agitation was clothed in so much ignorance and lack of knowledge of the laws of Nigeria, specifically the electoral laws.
For the sake of legal knowledge and because we are in the election period in Nigeria we will be taking a look at what the law says about issuing the certificate of return to winners of elections and what is the number of days INEC has to issue the certificate of return and if INEC fails to issue a certificate of return to the winner of the election what should the winner do and what document can be used in the place of the certificate of return for the swearing-in ceremony of the winner of the election.
The latest electoral act of 2022 provides answers to these issues. It is provided in Section 72 of the act that a (sealed) certificate of return at an election shall be issued within “14 days” to every candidate who has been returned as the winner of the election by the Returning Officer in an election.
The implication of this provision is that INEC has up to 14 days to issue a certificate of return to any winner of an election and only after 14 days have passed without INEC issuing the certificate of return to the winner can we then say that INEC is breaking the law but anything less than 14 days after the election was held, INEC is still acting within the confines of the law.
But when the court in an election petition nullifies the certificate of return issued to a previous candidate, INEC has just 48 hours to issue a fresh certificate of return to the candidate the court has held to be the rightful winner of the election.
If for any reason INEC fails, refuses, or neglects to issue a certificate of return to the winner of an election, the candidate will obtain a certified true copy of the order of the court declaring him the winner of the election; rightfully elected and order of the court is enough and sufficient for the purpose of swearing in of the candidate into the office he/she was elected for.
In summary, INEC has the window of 14 days to issue a certificate of return to the winner of an election and no law is broken if the certificate is issued within that time frame but when the court nullifies a previous certificate of return issued to another candidate, then INEC has just 48 hours to issue a fresh certificate of return to the candidate the court has held to be the rightful winner of the election.