The atmosphere in some parts of the country is tense and expectant, as the Supreme Court prepares to deliver judgements on Friday in the governorship elections in Kano, Plateau, Lagos, Cross River, Ebonyi, Zamfara, and Bauchi states.
Security was beefed up across Kano metropolis, given its volatile nature.
But the apex court, on Thursday, reserved ruling in the governorship election in Ogun State.
Also on Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the election of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, as the validly elected governor of the state.
The political atmosphere was pervaded by a sense of anxiety on Thursday, as the apex court readied to deliver its verdicts in the governorship appeals from Kano, Plateau, Zamfara, Bauchi, Lagos, Ebonyi, and Cross River states.
While the appeals from Kano, Zamfara, Bauchi, and Lagos were heard and reserved last December, that of Plateau was heard on Tuesday, and the appeal from Ebonyi was heard on Wednesday.
Cross River was among the three heard on Thursday and subsequently fixed for judgement on Friday.
The nervousness seemed to be more intense, with fears of snowballing into violent protests, in Kano and Plateau states, where the incumbent governors had been ordered to vacate office by the lower courts.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Abba Yusuf of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Kano State, saying he won the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.
But the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, in a judgement in September last year, voided Yusuf’s election after deducting over 160,000 votes belonging to NNPP on the grounds that the ballot papers used for the poll were not signed and stamped by officials of the electoral umpire.
The deduction then gave Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the lead and he was subsequently declared the duly elected governor of Kano State.
Besides affirming the judgement of the tribunal, the appellate court went ahead to void Yusuf’s participation in the March 18 governorship election, and said he was unlawfully nominated and sponsored for the election.
But Yusuf and NNPP, in their appeal, urged the apex court to set aside the two lower courts’ decisions because the tribunal erred in law when it deducted his over 160,000 votes on account of ballot papers not being signed and stamped by INEC officials.
The appellants further faulted the judgement of the appellate court, and argued that the issue of nomination and sponsorship was a pre-election matter, which the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain.
They, therefore, urged the Supreme Court to nullify and set aside the concurrent judgments of the two lower courts and affirm his election as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
There was also palpable tension in Plateau State, where the winner of the governorship election was sacked by the appellate court over alleged unlawful nomination.
INEC had on March 20, 2023 declared Caleb Mutfwang of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the Plateau governorship election, saying he scored 525,299 votes, against the 481,370 votes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Nentawe Goshwe.
But in its judgement last September, the three-member panel of the Plateau tribunal affirmed Mutfwang’s election and dismissed Goshwe’s petition for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Not satisfied, the petitioners proceeded to the appellate court, where the three-man panel voided the judgement of the tribunal and ordered the sack of Mutfwang as governor on the grounds of illegal nomination.
The appellate court agreed with the appellants that the primary election that produced Mutfwang as candidate of PDP was illegal and constituted in violation of a court order.
The Court of Appeal subsequently ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Goshwe after withdrawing the earlier one issued to Mutfwang.
Dissatisfied, Mutfwang approached the apex court to set aside the judgement of the appellate court on the grounds that the issue of qualification was a pre-election matter. He also said his party did not at any time violate the order of court with respect to organising a fresh congress.
The Supreme Court, during the hearing on Tuesday, raised the issue of jurisdiction, and pointed out that the order of the High Court was made outside jurisdiction as courts could not interfere with the internal matters of political parties.
Other matters slated for judgements included that of PDP’s Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of APC had polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes, with Jandor coming a distant third with 62,449 votes.
The apex court had adjourned for judgement in the appeal filed by Professor Sandy Onor and his party, PDP, against the election of Bassey Otu as Governor of Cross River State, shortly after lawyers adopted and argued their cases for and against the appeals.
The appellants were challenging the concurrent judgements of the Cross River State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the judgements were perverse and should be upturned by the apex court.
Their lawyer, Dr Joshua Musa, SAN, told the apex court that the two lower courts erred in law in holding that Otu was a lawful candidate of APC, even though he had defected from PDP and refused to vacate his seat at the state Assembly in line with the judgement of a Federal High Court.
Musa argued that the refusal to vacate office was an act of disobedience to the court. He added that the implication was that he remained a member of PDP and could not have been validly sponsored by APC.
In their responses, INEC and Otu, represented by Professor Mike Ozekhome, SAN, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Ozekhome pointed out that the case of the appellants was a complete waste of the apex court’s time because the issue had already been decided by both the tribunal and Court of Appeal, adding that the issue which bordered on qualification was a pre-election matter, well outside the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
The appeal court in Lagos had on November 22, 2023, affirmed the election of Otu as the governor of Cross River State.
The appellate court, in the unanimous judgement, dismissed the appeal of Onor and PDP and upheld the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal delivered on September 26 last year, which upheld the election of Otu of APC and his deputy, Peter Odey.
INEC had in March last year declared Otu winner of the governorship poll. It held that the APC candidate polled a total of 258,619 votes and won in 15 of the 18 local governments of the state, to defeat his closest rival, Senator Sandy Onor of PDP, who polled 179,636 votes.
In Zamfara State, the battle was between Governor Dauda Lawal and former Governor Bello Matawalle. INEC had declared Lawal the PDP governor winner and said he scored a total of 377,726 votes to defeat the then incumbent governor, Matawalle, who scored 311,976 votes.
Lawal’s election was also affirmed by the Zamfara Election Petitions Tribunal last September, after dismissing Matawalle’s petition for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Besides, the tribunal awarded a sum of N500, 000 fine against the petitioners for filing the petition.
However, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, nullified the return of Lawal as winner of the governorship poll. The court ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in three local government areas of the state, where elections had not been held previously or where results from various polling units were not counted.
Dissatisfied, Lawal had approached the apex court to set aside the judgement of the appellate court and sustain the judgement of the tribunal, which affirmed his victory at the poll.
However, not much was expected in the Bauchi and Ebonyi states governorship appeals, since the apex court hardly upturned concurrent findings of the lower courts, especially when new and convincing evidence were not presented at the hearing.
Meanwhile, judgement in the Ogun State appeals were reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties in the suit.
PDP’s candidate, Oladipupo Adebutu, through his lawyer, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, pointed out that the case of the appellants was misconceived at the lower courts. Uche added that evidence was presented before the tribunal to prove that results from 99 polling units with votes of over 40,000 were cancelled.
He argued that the said 40,000 votes were far more than the margin of 13,000 votes between Abiodun and Adebutu.
He submitted that INEC was wrong to have gone ahead to declare results of the March 18 governorship election in Ogun State, when the issue of cancelled votes in 99 polling units had not been resolved.
However, all the respondents, citing Section 179 of the constitution, argued that the election of a governor could not be challenged on the grounds of margin of lead.
Justice Okoro subsequently announced that judgement had been reserved, after taking submissions from parties.
However, the coast was on Thursday cleared for Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, following the dismissal of three separate appeals challenging his declaration as governor.
The appeals by APC, Young Progressives Party (YPP), and NNPP were all dismissed shortly after they were withdrawn by their respective lawyers.
They took the hint of the apex court to withdraw them after being confronted with the facts that the appeals were incompetent as they did not provide any new facts or evidence that would warrant the setting aside of the concurrent judgements of the tribunal and Court of Appeal.
In the appeals, cantered on alleged non-qualification and certificate forgery, the appellants’ lawyers made efforts to convince the panel of the apex court, led by Justice Mary Uwani Abba-Aji, that Emo Eno Bassey and Bassey Eno Emo on the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) certificate submitted to INEC were not the same and as such the governor allegedly forged his Secondary School Certificate.
However, the justices pointed out that no matter the colouration given to the issue, it remained a pre-election matter and a criminal one, which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. They added that the two lower courts were right in their decisions to dismiss the individual cases of the appellants.
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November last year affirmed the declaration of Eno as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State. The appellate court in its judgement dismissed three separate appeals filed against the governor’s election.
While affirming the September 28, 2023 judgement of the election petition tribunal, the three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Festus Obande, dismissed the appeal brought by the governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party, Bassey Akpan, and his party against INEC, Eno, and PDP.
Obande also entered judgment in favour of the governor against the appeals of the governorship candidate of NNPP, John Udoedehe, as well as Akanimo Udofia of APC
The appellate court declared in unanimous judgements that all three appeals lacked merit.
Meanwhile, PDP, on Thursday, congratulated Eno on the judgement of the Supreme Court, which upheld his victory at the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
According to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the party said, ”This judgement of the Supreme Court, the highest and final court in our country, is victory for democracy and the decisive triumph of the will of the people of Akwa Ibom State in their determination to preserve good governance in their state.
“Our party is proud of his capacity for leadership, especially in hitting the ground running upon inauguration, with the launching of the ARISE Agenda, leading to monumental achievements in the delivery of life-changing citizen empowerment programmes and projects in critical sectors including agriculture, education, healthcare, security, housing, road infrastructure, manufacturing, commerce, aviation, among others.”
Chuks Okocha, Alex Enumah in Abuja, James Sowole in Abeokuta, Okon Bassey in Uyo and Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano
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