The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the election of governors Seyi Makinde, Nasir el-Rufai and Abdullahi Sule of Oyo, Kaduna, and Nasarawa states respectively.
The court upheld the elections after listening to separate appeals regarding the outcomes.
In Makinde’s case, the court in a unanimous judgement found merit in his appeal that the majority judgment of the Appeal Court was a miscarriage of justice.
The Appeal Court had earlier ruled against the Oyo election tribunal which dismissed the petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Adebayo Adelabu.
Makinde who won the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had urged the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal and restore the judgment of the tribunal which affirmed his election as the governor of Oyo State.
After listening to both counsel, the panel headed by Justice Ejembi Eko went on a short recess and returned to deliver the judgment.
The court, therefore, affirmed the majority judgment of the tribunal which upheld the election of Makinde as the duly elected governor of Oyo State.
In the case of Kaduna state governorship election, the PDP candidate, Mr. Isa Ashiru, had approached the Supreme Court challenging the election victory of El-Rufai.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal which dismissed Ashiru’s petition.
Reiterating the point made by the appellate court on Wednesday, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision said the PDP and its candidate failed to prove the issues raised in their allegations and subsequently dismissed the petition.
The PDP and its candidate, Isah Ashiru, had asked the court to set aside the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Kaduna State tribunal which both affirmed El-Rufai’s election.
El-Rufai was declared winner of the Kaduna State governorship election with 1, 045, 427 votes, defeating Ashiru with over 200,000 votes.
Similarly, the seven-man panel of the court led by Justice Mary Peter Odili threw out the appeal filed by the PDP candidate in Nasarawa State, Mr. David Ombugadu, against the election Sule of the APC for lack of merit.
The court held that the appellant failed to prove allegations of substantial non-compliance in the election.
