S’Court upholds Nasarawa, Gombe, Kebbi, Kaduna, Delta governors elections
Nasarawa Governor Abdullahi Sule
The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of the Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule.
The state election petition tribunal had sacked the governor and declared David Ombugadu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, the winner of the March 18, 2023 election.
But the appeal court reinstated Sule and held that the tribunal wrongly relied on the evidence of eight of the PDP witnesses, whose statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition.
Reading the lead judgement, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun held that the appeal lacks merit.
Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris
Also, the Supreme Court has affirmed the election of the Governor of Kebbi State, Nasir Idris.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the state election inconclusive following cancellation and overvoting in some Local Government Areas.
The electoral commission on April 15 conducted a supplementary election with, Idris, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, who scored 409,225 votes to beat Aminu Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 360,940 votes.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Bande approached the tribunal.
The tribunal deducted 1,735 votes from APC while over 900 votes were also subtracted from PDP’s results.
Displeased with the judgement, Bande approached the court of appeal, but the appellate court affirmed the governor’s election. Bande took the appeal further to the apex court.
Delivering the judgement, the court held that the appeal lacked merit and was subsequently dismissed.
Also, other appeals in the matter were equally dismissed.
Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya
Jibrin Barde of the Peoples Democratic Party contested the outcome of the election. The Court of Appeal in Abuja had, in November 2023 affirmed the election of Yahaya as the governor.
The appellate court held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of non-qualification, perjury, and certificate forgery raised in the petition.
The five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun affirmed the concurrent judgement of the lower courts on the matter.
She said she found nothing wrong with the judgment to warrant interference from the apex court.
In a related development, the apex court has affirmed the election of the governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun.
The appellants, Ladi Adebutu and the Peoples Democratic Party prayed the apex court to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh elections in the 99 polling units where elections were allegedly cancelled.
The Appeal Court, Lagos Division, had in a split decision on November 24, 2023, affirmed Abiodun’s re-election.
The majority judgment delivered by Justice Joseph Ikyegh dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate.
Reading the lead judgement, Justice Tijani Abubakar dismissed the appeal.
The Supreme Court also affirmed the election victory of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the apex court dismissed an appeal the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, filed to challenge the outcome of the governorship election held in the state on March 18, 2023.
The court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that the appeal lacked merit.
It held that the APC and its candidate did not prove that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2023.
The court dismissed Omo-Agege’s contention that some of the result sheets that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, relied upon to declare Oborevwori as the winner of the election, did not have serial numbers.
According to the court, even if the total number of INEC forms that the Appellants complained about are removed, it would still not affect the margin of lead that was in Oborevwori’s favour.
It held that the Appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law to warrant the setting aside of both the Court of Appeal judgement and the verdict of the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
Consequently, it dismissed the petition without cost.
It will be recalled that INEC declared that Oborevwori of the PDP pollod 360, 234 votes to win the governorship election ahead of Omo-Agege of the APC who secured 240, 229 votes.
The apex court has also upheld the election of Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Governor of Kaduna State.
A five-member panel of the court, in a unanimous judgment, held that the appeal by Mohammed Isah Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was without merit.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment, held that the appeal was unmeritorious, the appellants having failed to comply with the provision of Paragraph 18(1) and (3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 in relation to the filing of pre-hearing notice at the tribunal.
