The Supreme Court yesterday declared the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his counterparts in Bauchi, Abia, Ebonyi and Cross Rivers states, Bala Mohammed, Alex Otti, Francis Nwifuru and Bassey Otu, respectively, as validly elected by the electorate, thereby, quashing the hopes of the opposition to upturn their victories.
It was time of jubilation for the Governors of Kano State, Yusuf Abba Kabiru; Plateau State, Mr. Caleb Mutfwang; and Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal, whose victories at the March 18, 2023 governorship election was affirmed by the Supreme Court, following their appeal against their earlier sack by the Court of Appeal.
Present in the court yesterday were four governors: Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Abba Yusuf of Kano State, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
Also in court was the immediate past Governor of Plateau State, Senator Simon Lalong.
On the appeal by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party ( LP), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and his PDP counterpart , Azeez Adediran, against the election of Sanwo-Olu as Lagos State Governor, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, who read the judgment on behalf of a five-man Panel of Justices, held that the petitions lacked merit and accordingly dismissed them. Recall that Rhodes-Vivour and Adeniran had filed separate appeals against the judgments of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the two decisions of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in the state.
The tribunal had dismissed the petitions of Rhodes-Vivour and Adeniran challenging Sanwo-Olu’s victory in the governorship election, a decision the duo appealed up to the Supreme Court.
A five-member panel of Supreme Court Justices headed by Justice John Okoro dismissed the two appeals and affirmed the declaration of Sanwo-Olu as the governor of Lagos State.
In the Plateau State governorship case, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which in November last year removed Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State from office on grounds of unlawful nomination.
The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal made fundamental error in allowing the APC to poke nose into the conduct of the primary election by the PDP and nullified the election unjustly.
Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, who delivered the lead of the unanimous judgment, said the issue of primary election was an internal affair of political parties and that no other party can dabble into it except members of the same party.
Besides, Justice Agim said the issue of alleged improper conduct of the ward and local council election used to sack the governor was not justiceable.
He said that the conduct of the ward and local council elections was an affair 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.
Justice Agim held 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.
Justice Agim, therefore, voided and set aside the order of the Court of Appeal that Nentawe Goshwehe, the governorship candidate of the APC, be inaugurated as Plateau State governor.
Affirming Yusuf of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as the duly elected governor of Kano State, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition instituted against him by the by All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Nasir Yusuf Gawuna.
The apex court reversed the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had nullified the election of the governor, describing them as miscarriage of justice.
Justice John Inyang Okoro, who delivered the lead judgment, held that the law and natural justice were turned upside down by the two courts below to arrive at the unjust and unfair decision.
Justice Okoro, while voiding and setting aside judgments of the two lower courts, said that miscarriage of justice in the ways and manners the petition against the governor was handled was manifest.
The Court of Appeal and the Tribunal had in their concurrent judgments annulled the election of Yusuf and declared Gawuna as winner of the election.
In the Zamfara State governorship case, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the lower court and affirmed the election of Governor Dauda Lawal.
Reading the judgment on behalf of the panel, Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the Court of Appeal decision was perverse and cannot stand.
The Court of Appeal had sacked Lawal of the PDP and ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in Maradun Local Council, in four wards in Birnin Magaji Local Council and some polling units in Bukkuyum Local Council.
Justice Sybil Nwaka-Gbagi, who read the Court of Appeal judgment, had said INEC should not have used IReV for the collation of results when the Supreme Court had ruled that it is not a result collation system but only for public viewing.
On the Bauchi State governorship case, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Governor Bala Mohammed of the PDP as winner of the governorship election.
Justice Mohammed Musa Saulawa, who read the lead judgment, dismissed the application of Sadique Abubakar of the APC challenging the decision of lower court that affirmed Mohammed’s victory.
The Court of Appeal had in its judgment delivered in November affirmed the victory of Mohammed in the Bauchi governorship election. A three-man panel of justices of the appellate court was unanimous, awarding no cost as the court held that each party to the matter should bear their costs.
One of the appellant’s pleas was that the election should be nullified, alleging that the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled.
However, the Appeal Court ruled that the appellant failed to prove this allegation with the necessary evidence.
On Ebonyi governorship election dispute, Justice Abubakar Tijani, who read the judgment on behalf of the panel members, stated that “the appeal is unmeritorious and it is hereby dismissed.”
The Supreme Court held that the appellant failed to successfully establish a case of non-compliance and, therefore, his case cannot succeed.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous agreement, upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which had earlier affirmed Francis Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Jummai Sankey, had dismissed the appeal filed by Chukwuma Odii of the PDP.
The panel also resolved all the five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Justice Sankey held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle in the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to the nomination of candidates.
On the Abia governorship election dispute, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, while delivering judgment, dismissed both the petitions of the PDP and APC candidates against the Labour Party candidate for lacking in merit.
It will be recalled that Governor Alex Otti of the LP was declared the winner of the governorship election in Abia State by INEC. He polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe, of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes.
Ahiwe and the governorship candidate of the APC, Ikechi Emenike, separately challenged Otti’s victory at the tribunal.
The tribunal, in its judgment on October 6, 2023, dismissed the petitions by Ahiwe and Emenike and affirmed Otti’s election. The judgment of the tribunal was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal but Ahiwe and Emenike approached the Supreme Court to seek redress.
However, the Supreme Court in its judgment yesterday said that there was no proof of substantial non-compliance as claimed by the PDP in the petition against the Labour Party and its governorship candidate and therefore dismissed the appeal.
On the Cross River State governorship dispute, Justice Helen Ogunwumiji, who read the judgment of the Supreme Court, dismissed the petition for being incompetent.
The PDP and its governorship candidate, Senator Sandy Onor, had challenged the nomination of Governor Bassey Otu by his party, the APC.
Onor had approached both the tribunal and appellate court, insisting that Otu should be disqualified from the race for allegedly holding dual citizenship, committing certificate forgery and for not being a member of the APC as of the time of the election.
But the lower courts dismissed the PDP petitions, agreeing with Otu’s submission that the PDP cannot challenge his victory on grounds of party sponsorship and nomination because they were not aspirants during the APC governorship primaries.
The Court of Appeal, Calabar Judicial Division, had dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP governorship candidate and Onor against Otu.
Justice Ogunwumiju in the judgment, yesterday, said the appellant was unable to prove the case of forgery and non-qualification against the respondent.
The Supreme Court also held that the issue of non qualification raised by appellant was a pre- election matter and consequently dismissed the petition for lack of merit as it was out of judicial time.
