The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the victories of six governors at the March 18, 2023, governorship election.The governors who got the seal of the Supreme Court to continue superintending the affairs of their respective states were Governors Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Nasir Idris of Kebbi State and Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State.
Affirming the election of Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the governor of Kaduna State, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment, held that the appeal by Mohammed Ashiru Isah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was without merit.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment, held that the appeal was unmeritorious. According to the court, the appellants failed to comply with the provision of Paragraphs 18(1) and (3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 in relation to the filing of pre-hearing notice at the tribunal.
The Supreme Court also affirmed the election of Idris of the APC as winner of the Kebbi State governorship election. The five-man panel led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun dismissed the appeal by Aminu Bande of the PDP for lacking in merit. The court dismissed PDP’s appeal and upheld the judgment of the lower courts.
Similarly, the Supreme Court affirmed Yahaya’s re-election as the governor of Gombe State.Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in the lead judgment, dismissed the appeal by the candidate of the PDP.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Yahaya as the winner of the election after scoring 342,821 votes to defeat his closest rival, Jibrin Barde, candidate of the PDP, who polled 233,131 votes.
Displeased, the PDP and its candidate filed a petition claiming that Yahaya, who contested on the platform of the APC, was not re-elected by a majority of lawful votes.
The opposition party alleged cases of ballot box stuffing and thumb printing by Yahaya’s supporters in nine of the state’s 11 local councils. However, the Gombe State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed the suit filed by the party and Barde.
S.B. Belgore, who led a three-member panel of the tribunal, struck out the petition. Not satisfied with the tribunal’s verdict, Barde and PDP approached the Appeal Court. T. N Orji-Abadua of the Court of Appeal upheld the governor’s victory and dismissed the appeal.
“This appeal lacks merit,” she said. “All the issues are resolved in favour of the respondent and against the appellant. No order as to cost. The judgment of the lower tribunal is hereby affirmed.”
Also, the legal battle between Governor Sule of Nasarawa State and the PDP and its governorship candidate, Emmanuel David Ombugadu, was finally put to rest yesterday as the Supreme Court affirmed Sule as winner of the governorship election. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who read the lead judgment, resolved the legal issues against the appellant and accordingly dismissed the appeal.
The Appeal Court had on November 23, last year, reversed Sule’s sack by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2, 2023.
The appellate court held that the tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law, to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal had said the tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.
The court held that no petition could lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the tribunal.
“Since the statements used by the tribunal to sack the governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, the statements were a product of illegality with no probate value for a law court to act upon,” the court ruled.
The court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations could not be established. Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the candidate of the PDP was a nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the tribunal.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the tribunal denied the governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition.
Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the tribunal invalid. In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state. The Supreme Court also yesterday dismissed an appeal by the PDP and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu against the victory of Governor Abiodun of Ogun State.
Consequently, the court affirmed the election of Abiodun as duly elected governor of Ogun State.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Tijani
Abubakar held that having dealt with the issues submitted for appeal, the court found that the appeal was unmeritorious and accordingly dismissed it.
The Supreme Court also affirmed the election of Oborevwori of the PDP as Delta State governor.
Before the Supreme Court were three separate petitions by aggrieved candidates and their parties seeking to nullify the election of Oborevwori. The aggrieved petitioners included Ovie Omo-Agege, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Ken Pela of the Labour Party (LP) and Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Justice John Okoro, who led the five-man panel of the Supreme Court, in his judgment dismissed the APC’s appeal against the election of Oborevwori and upheld the decision of the lower courts.
Similarly, the court while delivering judgment on an appeal by Gbagi held that there was no merit in the appeal against the PDP and its candidate and accordingly dismissed it. In the same way, the court threw out the appeal by Ken Pela of LP for lacking in merit.
