As S’ Court Decides on Remaining Four Governorship Election Cases...
With 17 state governors retaining their seats because their challengers failed to prove allegations made against their elections, will the remaining four governors be as lucky as their colleagues at the apex court, Alex Enumah asks.
Within the last one month, the Supreme Court has heard appeals against the 2023 governorship election from 21 states of the federation. In the last two weeks it has also delivered judgments involving 17 states, remaining just four, whose judgments are just by the corner.
Against the hope of some litigants as well as permutations of pundits, the apex court declined appeals to sack some governors, especially those earlier sacked by either the election petition tribunals or the Court of Appeal.
Among the governorship election cases that attracted the most attention as well as generated much tension were those of Kano, Plateau, Zamfara and Nasarawa states.
But, the apex court held that the decisions of the appellate court to sack the governors of Kano, Plateau and Zamfara states were not in tandem with the law and subsequently went ahead to nullify the decisions and declared that the governors were duly elected and declared so by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the case of Nasarawa State and also Kaduna State, the apex court however upheld the judgments of the Court of Appeal, which had nullified the judgments of the tribunal which had voided their victories at the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
Recall that while the tribunal in the case of Nasarawa had declared Hon. David Ombugadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the authentic winner of the governorship election as against the declaration of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by INEC, in the case of Kaduna State, the tribunal had voided the election of Governor Uba Sani of the APC and ordered a rerun in four local government areas.
The question on the lips of many as they await the apex court judgment is would any of the remaining four be so unfortunate to have his election nullified and his declaration as a governor set aside. Would there be a repeat of the 2020 shocker that saw the eviction of Governor Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP from the Government House in Owerri, Imo State on the grounds that he did not win majority of the lawful votes cast at the March 2019 governorship poll in Imo State.
Recall that the apex court had in a unanimous judgment declared Hope Uzodinma of the APC winner of the 2019 polls after restoring votes said to have accrued to him but were not included in the overall votes by INEC.
According to the judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun in 2020, “Vote due to the appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma and the APC from 388 Polling Units were wrongly excluded from scores ascribed to the appellant”, she held, and went further to order that, “the appellant votes from 388 Polling Units unlawfully excluded from the appellant vote declared shall be added and that the first respondent, Emeka Ihedioha, was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the said election.
“His return as the elected governor of Imo State is hereby declared null and void and accordingly set aside.
“It is hereby declared that the first appellant (Mr Uzodinma) holds the majority of lawful votes cast at the governorship election held in Imo State on March 9, 2019.”
Subsequently Kekere-Ekun held that Uzodinma haven satisfied the mandatory constitutional requirements be declared governor.
“It is hereby declared that first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, is the winner of the governorship of Imo State held on March 9, 2019. The certificate issued to the first defendant (Mr Ihedioha) is hereby withdrawn.
“It is hereby ordered that the certificate of return shall be issued to the first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, forthwith and he should be sworn in as the governor of Imo State,” the apex court held.
As we await the verdict in the remaining four appeals and as anxiety begins to build, the question is; among the appeals involving Sokoto, Rivers, Taraba and Adamawa, which would likely go the way of Emeka Ihedioha.
Recall that the apex court last week heard three of the appeals and has reserved judgment which would be delivered anytime before Friday. Those
whose judgments are pending include Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Adamawa.
For Rivers, it is APC’s Tonye Cole against Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who was recently threatened with impeachment from his former boss, Nyesome Wike, through a faction of the state’s legislators.
While candidate of the Labour Party (LP) withdrew her appeal shortly after it was filed, the apex court had last Monday, dismissed the appeal by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). The appeal was dismissed following its withdrawal by the APM’s counsel, Confidence Kere. When the case of the APM was called its counsel, Kere attempted to adopt and argue its client’s case, however Kere was cut short by the panel led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who pointed out that the APM lacked the legal standing to institute the appeal on the grounds that it did not take part in the actual election.
Kere subsequently applied orally to withdraw the appeal and since the respondents did not object to the withdrawal, the apex court subsequently dismissed it.
Meanwhile, Cole in his appeal is seeking the reversal of both the Court of Appeal and tribunal judgments which upheld the declaration of Fubara of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Rivers State. He insisted that the lower court erred in law when it agreed with the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that he did not prove his allegations against the governorship poll. The APC’s hopeful therefore urged the apex court to allow his appeal and grant the reliefs sought which included the setting aside of the concurrent judgments of the two lower courts and declare him winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship poll in Rivers State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared PDP’s Fubara as governor having won majority of the lawful votes cast at the governorship poll.
Dissatisfied, APC and Cole citing alleged irregularities, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, corrupt practices, amongst others, had asked the tribunal to void Fubara’s election as governor.
Besides they claimed that Fubara was not qualified to contest the election over alleged violation of the law because he had allegedly continued to sign documents as the Rivers State’s Accountant-General despite being nominated governorship candidate of the PDP.
But, the tribunal in a unanimous judgment held that the allegations were not proved to warrant the grant of the reliefs sought and subsequently dismissed it.
Dissatisfied, Cole approached the appellate court to reverse the judgment of the tribunal, but was told he did not advance any cogent reason to warrant the Court of Appeal to deviate from the findings and conclusion of the tribunal.
The judgment of the appellate court led to the instant appeal which has now been reserved for judgment anytime from now, as the 60 days allowed by law for the apex court to hear and deliver its judgment expires on Friday, January 26, 2024.
Another case which would also lapse on January 26, is that of Sokoto State, where candidate of the PDP, Saidu Umar, is challenging the election of Ahmed Aliyu as Governor of Sokoto State. Umar and the PDP had listed nine grounds upon which they are asking the Supreme Court to set aside the concurrent judgments of the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal which affirmed the election of Ahmed Aliyu as Governor of Sokoto State.
INEC had in March last year declared Aliyu and his party, the APC winner of the Sokoto governorship election, having won majority of the lawful votes cast at the poll.
Dissatisfied Umar and PDP citing grounds such as malpractices, non-compliance as well as non-qualification urged the tribunal to void the election of Aliyu as governor.
In one hand, they prayed the tribunal to sack Aliyu and declare them authentic winner of the election, while on the other they urged that the election be declared inconclusive and a rerun in about 138 polling units be ordered.
But, the three-member panel of Justices of the tribunal, led by Justice Haruna Msheila, in a unanimous judgment delivered on September 30, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit. The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove the six grounds formulated in their joint petition.
Of the four pending governorship appeals before the Supreme Court, that of Sokoto State seems to be interesting. If the apex court did not allow over 165,000 voters in Kano State suffer disenfranchisement because of the negligence of the electoral officials, would the apex court allow the over 82,000 electorates in Sokoto, whose votes were cancelled suffer disenfranchisement, simply because the appellants did not lead oral evidence to support the documents showing cancellation of votes in 138 polling units? Recall also that the over 82,000 cancelled votes are far higher than the 49,000 votes upon which Aliyu was declared winner of the Sokoto governorship election.