The Supreme Court on Monday validated the election of the
governor of Kano State, Mr. Abdullahi Ganduje.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, had filed an appeal at the court to dispute the March 23 supplementary election held in some electoral wards in the state.
A seven-man panel of justices of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, after listening to arguments by the counsel representing the appellant and the respondents in the suit, fixed had today to decide the case.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the court dismissed Yusuf’s appeal challenging the election of Ganduje for lacking in merit.
The court held that the appellant failed to prove any case of irregularity in the main election held on March 9 and the supplementary election on March 23, 2019.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the March 9 election in the state inconclusive, which led to the supplementary election held on March 23.
The court also upheld the election of Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, candidate of the PDP, as the governor of Sokoto state.
Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, candidate of the APC, had filed an appeal challenging Tambuwal’s victory.
The challenger had alleged over voting and not compliance with the electoral act in the election, but the court ruled that the appellant could not prove his case.
Reading the lead judgment, Uwani Abba-Aji held that the appellant failed to produce credible evidence to prove their case.
Abba-Aji held that the court cannot rely on documents tendered in evidence by the appellant because they were not authentic.
The documents tendered were witness statements originally given in Hausa but translated into English.
The apex court said the translated versions are not admissible and cannot be relied upon because they amount to hearsay.
In a unanimous verdict, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
The court also validated the election of the governor of Bauchi Statre, Mr. Bala Mohammed
A seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the APC and its governorship candidate, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar.
Justice Dattijo Muhammad, who read the lead judgment, held that the evidence of the appellants’ witnesses at the election tribunal was inadmissible.
He added that the appellants failed to demonstrate the perversity in the concurrent judgments of both the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which had both affirmed the victory of Mohammed and his party, PDP, to warrant the verdicts of the lower courts to be set aside.
Bala was present at the hearing of the appeal.
The Supreme Court also affirmed the re-election of the APC candidate, Mr. Simon Lalong, as the governor of Plateau State.
In a unanimous judgement read by Justice Paul Galinje, the seven-member panel of the court held that the applicant failed to prove that the election was not in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
“The appeal failed and is hereby dismissed,” the court held.
The PDP candidate, Mr. Jeremiah Useni, had challenged the outcome of the governorship elections held in the state on March 9, 2019.
Useni, in his appeal marked SC/1501/19, questioned the election of Lalong on the ground that he was not the valid winner of the governorship election.
The senator said both the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal failed to properly evaluate his case before affirming that Lalong was duly elected in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
Useni therefore, asked the apex court to allow his appeal and set aside the judgements of the two lower courts. The request was rejected.
