The Supreme Court on Friday spared six Nigerian governors in the final verdicts of elections’ petitions brought against them by their opponents.
Indeed, the apex court affirmed elections of Governors of Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Ogun.
Last week, the court had decided the fate of governors: Hyacinth Alia of Benue; Alex Otti of Abia, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara; Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, and Bala Mohammed of Bauchi.
Others were Cross River governor, Bassey Otu; Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru; Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuff; Akwa Ibom Governor, Umo Eno, and Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang.
Delta
The Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment, on Friday, dismissed the appeal brought before it by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate, Ovie-Omo-Agege against the election of Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori.
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The court in the lead judgment delivered by Justice John Inyang Okoro held that Omo-Agege, a former Deputy Senate President failed woefully to establish that the election was invalid for alleged corrupt malpractices.
Justice Okoro said that none of the allegations against the March 18, 2023 election was established as required by law.
While Oborevwori scored 360,234 votes to win the governorship election, his closest rival, Omo-Agege of the APC polled 240,229 votes.
The Supreme Court rejected the plea by Omo-Agege that the election be nullified on the allegations that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Justice Okoro also rejected his claim that the results of the governorship election were not properly recorded in some polling units and the allegations that the forms that contained some of the recorded results did not have serial numbers.
While affirming Oborevwori as the lawfully elected governor for Delta State, the apex court affirmed the judgments of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal which had earlier dismissed Omo-Agege’s petition for want of merit.
Gombe
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Jibrin Barde, against the election of Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State.
The apex court is delivering final judgements on governorship election legal battles affirmed the judgements of the lower courts on the matter.
The five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun said she found nothing wrong with the lower courts’ judgments to warrant interference by the apex court.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had, in November 2023, affirmed Yahaya’s election as the governor of Gombe State.
Ogun
The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld the re-election of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State.
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel, dismissed as lacking in merit an appeal the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu, filed to challenge the outcome of the governorship poll held in the state on March 18, 2023.
In its lead judgement that was prepared by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, the apex court said it found no reason to nullify the election victory of Governor Abiodun, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The apex court upheld the earlier verdict of the Court of Appeal, which on November 22, 2023, dismissed the case the PDP and its candidate raised against the election.
“This appeal is unmeritorious, and it is accordingly dismissed,” the court held.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that Governor Abiodun polled a total of 276,298 votes to defeat his closest rival, Adebutu of the PDP, who garnered a total of 262,383 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, Adebutu approached the Ogun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, insisting that he was the valid winner of the gubernatorial contest.
He, among other things, alleged that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Aside from alleging that the election was marred by irregularities and corrupt practices, Adebutu alleged that over 40,000 voters from his strongholds were disenfranchised due to violence.
He told the tribunal that he secured the highest number of valid votes cast at the election and therefore ought to have been declared the winner by INEC.
However, Adebutu’s petition was dismissed by Justice Hamidu Kunaza, who led a three-man tribunal that affirmed Abiodun as the bona fide winner of the contest.
Likewise, the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, on November 24, 2023, in a split judgement of two to three, upheld the decision of the tribunal.
While the appellate court, in its majority decision that was delivered by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, found no reason to dislodge the judgement of the tribunal, in her minority verdict, Justice Jane Inyang directed INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return it issued to Abiodun and, within 90 days, conduct a fresh election in some polling units in the state.
Whereas Adebutu approached the Supreme Court to challenge the appellate court’s majority judgement, Governor Abiodun lodged a cross-appeal to set aside the minority verdict that ordered the fresh election.
INEC equally lodged a cross-appeal, praying to the Supreme Court to validate the result of the election that it announced.
Nasarawa
From Nasarawa State, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Governor Sule Abdullahi with the dismissal of the petition instituted against his election by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its governorship candidate, Emmanuel David Ombugadu.
The court upheld the Governor’s election on the ground that the allegations made against it were not established.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in a lead and unanimous judgment, said the petition of PDP and Ombugadu could not be attached with any probative value.
The apex court dismissed the allegations of unlawful calculations of votes by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the reason that the allegations could not stand the credibility examination.
INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured 283,016 votes.
The Appeal Court had, on November 23 2023, reversed the sack of Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2.
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.
The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.
Also, the Court had dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established.
Kaduna
The Supreme Court also affirmed the election of the election of Uba Sani as Kaduna State governor.
The court dismissed the appeal by the PDP, and its governorship candidate, Mohammed Ashiru Isa.
The court of appeal in Abuja had on November 24, 2023, in a unanimous judgment affirmed the election of Uba Sani as Kaduna State governor.
The PDP and Ashiru challenged the outcome of the governorship election held in the state on March 18.
They alleged that Uba was not duly elected by a majority of valid votes cast in the election, adding that the election was invalid because of corrupt practices and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Reading the lead judgment, Justice Tijani Abubakar held that the appellant had nothing useful to ask this court.
“The appeal is vexatious, frivolous, and lacks merit,” the justice said.
He upheld the judgement of the lower courts affirming the election of the governor.
Kebbi
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its governorship candidate, Aminu Bande, on Friday failed in their bid to remove Nasir Idris of the All progressives Congress, APC, as the elected Governor of Kebbi State.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the appeal filed by PDP and Bande against Idris’s election.
Justice Uwani Musa Aba-Aji delivered the lead judgment, dismissing all issues raised against the outcome of the March 18, 2023 governorship election by PDP and its candidate.
The Supreme Court held that the allegations of forgery of testimonial brought against the deputy governor of the state, Abubakar Tafida, were not established as required by law.
Justice Aba-Aji also held that the issues of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election failed because the appellants failed to prove how the allegations substantially affected the outcome of the poll.
The apex court affirmed the judgment of the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, delivered on 5th October, 2023, and that of the Court of Appeal, in holding that Idris was duly elected.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared the March 18th, 2023 Kebbi governorship election inconclusive owing to “massive vote cancellation and over-voting” in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state.
The commission later fixed 15th April, 2023, for a supplementary election.
At the end of the exercise, Idris, the candidate of the APC, scored 409,225 votes to beat Bande of the PDP, who got 360,940 votes.
Bande and his party rejected the result and filed a petition before the Tribunal.
In the petition, the petitioners alleged that there was over-voting in some polling units and that Idris was not qualified to contest the poll.
They also alleged that the deputy governor had submitted a fake secondary school testimonial to INEC.
However, in the judgment, Justice Ofem Ofem, the chairman of the tribunal, held that the petitioners failed to prove beyond doubt that the third respondent (deputy governor) presented a fake certificate to INEC.
Justice Ofem added that the evidence presented showed that the testimonial in question was duly signed and issued to him by the then principal of Sultan Abubakar College, Sokoto, in 1982.
The tribunal chairman described the documents presented by the petitioners as “iron cast evidence” saying, “we state categorically that the third respondent did not forge certificate”.
On the issue of over-voting, Justice Ofem said out of the 59 polling units being questioned, irregularities were discovered in nine.
He, however, held that the deduction of the votes would not affect the margin between the election winner and the first runner-up.
The judge added that there was no substantial evidence to prove over-voting and irregularities in other polling units.
