The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Bala Mohammed, Bauchi, and Dauda Lawal, Zamfara.
The other governors saved by the court were Yusuf Abba, Kano, Caleb Mutfwang, Plateau and Francis Nwifuru, Ebonyi.
In Lagos, a five-man panel of the court led by Justice Inyang Okoro dismissed two separate appeals that challenged the return of Sanwo-Olu as winner of the March 18, 2020 governorship election held in the state.
The appeals were filed by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) respectively, Messrs Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
The appellants had contended that Sanwo-Olu’s nomination as a candidate for the election was null and void running mate, Mr Obafemi Hamzat, holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and the United States and was therefore ineligible to run with him
Delivering judgement on the LP’s appeal, a member of the panel, Justice Lawal Garba, held that by virtue of section 177 of the Nigerian constitution a citizen by birth who has attained 35 years of age and has a school certificate is qualified to vie for office of the governor in Nigeria.
Delivering judgement on the Labour Party’s appeal, Lawal Garba, a member of the Supreme Court panel, held that by virtue of section 177 of the Nigerian constitution a citizen by birth who has attained 35 years of age and has a school certificate is qualified to vie for office of the governor in Nigeria.
A person who is a citizen of Nigeria by birth is clearly entitled to contest any election in Nigeria, Mr Garba said.
He added that no provision in the constitution strips a Nigerian by birth of his citizenship on account of acquiring the citizenship of another country.
“I find the Court of Appeal right in affirming the election of the second respondent (Governor Sanwo-Olu.).
“This appeal lacks merit and it is consequently dismissed,” Garba said.
Other members of the panel consented to the lead decision.
In his consenting opinion, a member of the panel, Justice Emmanuel Agim, said, “The Lagos State deputy governor’s declaration of allegiance to the United States does not rob him of his right to vie for elective office in Nigeria as a citizen by birth.”
The court also dismissed the PDP’s appeal.
Justice Adamu Jauro, who delivered the lead decision, said the election petition tribunal which conducted the trial on the case, failed to determine the merit of the petition submitted to it by the party.
However, he said the Supreme Court could not determine the merit of the appeal because the strict time frame of 180 days within which the petition must be determined had lapsed.
“This appeal is devoid of any merit, and it is accordingly dismissed,” he declared.
In the Bauchi State governor’s case, the court struck out the appeal filed against the election Mohammed saying found no reason to void the judgements of the lower courts.
In a lead judgement delivered by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, the court dismissed an appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its candidate, Mr Sadique Abubakar, filed to challenge the outcome of the March 18, 2023 governorship election which produced Mohammed of the PDP as the winner.
Abubakar and his party had contended that Governor Mohammed was not the valid winner of the contest.
They alleged that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, insisting that several electoral documents that were used during the poll were not properly filed.
The court also upheld the election of Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the duly elected governor of Zamfara State.
It set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal Abuja, which had in November 2023 declared the governorship election as inconclusive and ordered a re-run in three local government areas of the state.
He was declared the winner of the March 18 governorship election, dislodging the former governor, Mr Bello Matawalle, of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Lawal polled a total of 377,726 votes while Matawalle who is the current minister of state for defence, got 311,976 votes.
The minister had accused INEC of subverting his victory at the poll by failing to include the results of some local government areas.
The apex court also affirmed Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as the duly elected governor of the Kano State.
The apex court dismissed the petition instituted against the governor by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Mr Nasir Gawuna.
It reversed the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the election of the governor.
Okoro, who delivered the lead judgment, held that the law and natural justice were turned upside down by the two lower courts to arrive at the unjust and unfair decision.
He held that two major fundamental flaws were discovered in the findings of the Tribunal and the Count of Appeal which led to a miscarriage of justice.
The judge said the allegation by the APC that the governor was not a member of the NNPP at the time he stood for the election, which the Tribunal used to overturn his victory, is against the provisions of the law.
He said membership of the NNPP by the governor cannot be challenged by the APC as it is an internal affair of the party.
The judge further held that the issue of party membership cannot be raised as post-election matters as done by the APC and its governorship candidate and wrongly upheld by the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
The apex court found that the governor’s nomination was submitted to the INEC in an NNPP letter head paper jointly signed by the party’s national chairman and national secretary.
Okoro also held that since the nomination, no member of the NNPP had queried the action except the APC in its petition before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
Besides, the apex court reversed the unlawful removal of 165, 616 votes from the total votes cast for the NNPP and its governorship candidate in the poll.
The court said there was no basis for the unlawful removal of the votes because the ballot papers used for the poll were duly issued by INEC.
The court also dismissed the allegation that the ballot papers were not signed and stamped at the back.
For Mutfwang of the PDP, the five-man panel reversed his sack by the Appeal Court.
Mutfwang was declared the winner of the governorship election on March 18, 2023/
But in a judgement delivered last November, the Court of Appeal upturned his victory and declared Mr Nentawe Goshwe of the APC the true winner of the poll.
Mutfwang, who first won at the Plateau State Governorship Election Tribunal, immediately filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to have the Court of Appeal’s decision overturned.
Delivering the lead judgement Justice Emmanuel Agim referenced APC’s contention that the appellant was not qualified to contest the election.
The APC argued that Mutfwang’s nomination as a candidate and his election were invalid by virtue of non-compliance with the electoral law.
The Court of Appeal, upholding APC’s argument, had held that the primary election that produced Governor Mutfwang as PDP’s candidate and his subsequent nomination to INEC were invalid.
However, Agim, in his judgement held declared: “We have held in a plethora of cases that the sponsorship of a candidate for election is an internal affair of a political party.”
He ruled that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to determine the validity of the candidacy of the PDP.
He restored the decision of the election tribunal and affirmed Mutfwang’s victory at the poll.
Similarly, the apex court affirmed the election of s Nwifuru of the APC as governor of Ebonyi State.
The court upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, dismissing the appeal of Mr Chukwuma Odii of the PDP for lacking in merit.
Recall that the Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November 2023 affirmed the election of Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State in the March 18 governorship election.
The three-member panel presided over by Justice Jummai Sankey, in its unanimous decision, dismissed the appeal filed by Odii and upheld the earlier verdict of the tribunal but the PDP candidate approached the apex court to seek redress.
The panel also resolved all the five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Justice Sankey had held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle in the internal affairs of the All Progressives Congress as it relates to the nomination of candidates.
Nwifuru polled 199,131 to defeat Odii who scored 80,191 and the Mr Ben Odo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who got 52,189.
As regard Abia governorship election dispute, Justice Abba-Aji, while delivering judgment dismissed both the petitions of the PDP and APC candidates against Governor Alex Otti of the LP candidate for lack of merit.
Recall that Otti was declared the winner of the governorship election, polling 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr Okey Ahiwe, of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes.
Ahiwe and the governorship candidate of the APC, Mr 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 there was no proof of substantial non-compliance as claimed by the PDP in the petition against the LP and its governorship candidate and therefore dismissed the appeal.
In the Cross River State governorship dispute, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, who read the judgment of the court, dismissed the petition of the PDP candidate, Mr Sandy Onor in the March 18 governorship election.
Onor had challenged the nomination of Governor Bassey Otu by his party, the APC.
Onor 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 petition, agreeing with Otu’s submission that the PDP cannot challenge his victory on the 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.
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 the appellant was a pre- election matter and consequently dismissed the petition for lack of merit.
With Premium Times, Vanguard, The Guardian reports
