By Vivian Okejeme
The Supreme Court in its separate judgments Friday affirmed victories of the Governor of Bauchi State, Sen. Bala Mohammed, Governors Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in their respective States.
Also, the apex court validated the election of the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu.
Abba Yusuf survives
The Supreme court has upheld the election of the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as the governor of the state.
The five-man panel of the court lead by John Inyang Okoro, held that the 165, 616 votes complied with the provisions of Section 71 of the Electoral Act have been signed and stamped by the election agents.
The court held that the All Progressive Congress (APC) and it’s flagbearer, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, failed to prove that the votes were unlawful.
Therefore, the court ordered that the signed and stamped 165, 616 votes be returned to the appallant.
With the verdict, the court thereby set aside the judgement of the lower court and declared that the Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf won the 2023 governorship election in Kano State with the majority votes.
The Independent National Electronic Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced Yusuf as the winner of the March 18, 2023 election, saying he garnered 1,019,602 votes to defeat Gawuna who got 890,705 of the votes cast.
Consequently, the APC headed the Tribunal, citing alleged electoral malpractice.
The Tribunal in its ruling nullified Yusuf’s election, adding that over 160,000 ballot papers “were not signed or stamped by INEC”.
The three-man panel of the Tribunal led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadebay sacked Yusuf on September 20, 2023, after deducting 165,663 of his votes.
Yusuf’s votes were subsequently reduced to 853,939 while Ganuwa’s 890,705 votes were not affected.
Not satisfied, Yusuf proceeded to the Appeal court which held that it can be seen that the Tribunal acted in the overall interest of justice when it allowed APC’s tendering of documents during trial.
The court held that INEC released documents to the APC piecemeal in order to defeat the petition of the petitioner.
The judgement further posited the the Petitioner’s insistence that APC ought to have joined its candidate, Ganuwa, as a party at the Tribunal proceedings, was not backed by the 1999 Constitution.
It maintained that a candidate is entitled to be represented by his political party during litigation, adding that every political party shall maintain the register of its voters.
The court said the appellant to his own detriment did not submit his NNPP membership registrar or even tendered his statement on oath regarding his membership of the party.
The court added that the name of Abba is not the NNPP membership registrar.
“As rightfully found, Yusuf Abba was not a member of the NNPP at the time he was purportedly sponsored by his party and he was not qualified to contest the March Governorship Election,” the court while affirming the judgment of the Tribunal.
“If you claim to be a member of a political party, is it not logical for you to say so by yourself and not by proxy?
“Even though membership of a political party is an internal affair, a political party cannot be permitted to circumvent or breach the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
“The Tribunal was wrong not to have disqualified the appellant.
“Therefore the failure of the appellant and the NNPP to comply with the 1999 Constitution is fatal to their election.
“All issues in this appeal are dismissed and the judgment of the Tribunal is affirmed,” the court held.
Gov Mutfwang restored
The Supreme Court, reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal that sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State from office on ground of unlawful nomination.
The judgement read by Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the court below made an error in allowing the All Progressives Congress APC to delve into the conduct of the primary election by the People’s Democratic Party PDP and nullified the election unjustly.
The court held that the issue of primary election was an internal affairs of political parties and that no other party can dabble into it except members of the same party.
Besides, Justice Agim said that the issue of alleged improper conduct of the ward and local governments election used to sack the Governor was not justiceable.
According to him, the conduct of the ward and local governments election was an affairs of the State Executive Committee of a political party while the conduct of the primary election for the nomination of a governorship candidate is entirely that of the National Executive Committee of a political party.
Also, the court established that there was no issue of irregularities in the ways and manners the Governorship primary election that produced the governor was conducted in Plateau and wondered why that of the ward election was used to nullify the gubernatorial poll.
He said that evidence was even well adduced that an order of Plateau State High Court allegedly disobeyed was indeed obeyed by parties involved.
Therefore, the court unanimously voided and set aside the order of the Court of Appeal that Nentawe Goshwehe, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be inaugurated as Plateau State Governor.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had earlier dismissed the petition of the APC and its governorship candidate.
Governor Mutfwang of the PDP scored 525,299 votes to beat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda, who garnered 481,370 votes during the 18 March governorship poll in Plateau State.
The governor’s election was upheld by the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, the state capital.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in its judgement delivered on 19 November 2023, overturned Mr Mutfwang’s victory, prompting him to file an appeal at the Supreme Court to challenge the lower court’s decision
Gov Sanwo-Olu’s election authenticated
The election of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy Obafemi Hamza in the March 18 general electron was authenticated by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The five-man panel of the Apex Court on Friday dismissed the appeal brought before it by the Labour Party(LP) and its governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
The court held that the petition seeking the disqualification of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy Obafemi Hamza from the poll totally lacked merit.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Garba Lawal, the court held that the allegations of renouncing Nigerian citizenship by the Lagos State Deputy Governor for the United States of America cannot be used to disqualify the respondents.
The Apex Court said that since Obafemi Hamza is a Nigerian by birth, his acquisition of American citizen has not taken his right as a Nigerian from him.
It also maintained that the Petitioners failed prove with credible evidence that the Deputy Governor indeed renounced his Nigerian citizenship.
Consequence to the above, the court upheld that the decision of the Court of Appeal which had on November 15 dismissed the earlier appeal filed by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Labour Party against the election of Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Recall that the Court of Appeal three-member panel led by Yargata Nimpar, had in a unanimous decision affirmed the judgement of the Lagos State Election Petitions Tribunal that upheld the victory of Sanwo-Olu as the elected governor of Lagos in the March 18 election.
Lawal validated as Zamfara Gov.
The Supreme Court declared Dauda Lawal as the validly elected Governor of Zamfara state, by setting aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which declared his election inconclusive.
In a judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Apex court held that the lower court decision in declaring the election inconclusive “is perversed”.
The judgement was on an appeal by Lawal, seeking redress over the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had on November 16, declared the Zamfara gubernatorial election as inconclusive.
Justice Agim stated that “The appeal has merit, it subsists and it is hereby allowed.
“The judgement that the election was inconclusive is hereby set aside.
“The order setting aside and order that rerun election be held is set aside” Justice Agim ordered.
Recall that a three-member panel of the appellate court had unanimously annulled the victory of Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by ordering a rerun in three local governments, Maradun, Birnin-Magaji and Bukyun.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Lawal as the winner of the March 18 election with 377,726 votes.
However, Bello Matawalle, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, who polled 311,976 votes, challenged the outcome of the poll.
Matawalle, now Minister of State for Defence, had accused INEC of subverting his victory at the poll by failing to include the results of some ward areas.
On September 18, the Tribunal held that Matawalle’s petition was devoid of merit and also awarded the sum of N500,000 fine against him.
However, Matawalle and the APC approached the appeal court challenging the decision of the tribunal.
The Court of Appeal held that the Zamfara State Election Petitions Tribunal did not consider the evidence provided by the appellants.
Consequently, the court below declared the election as inconclusive and ordered INEC to hold a fresh election in three LGAs.
