…apologise to the judiciary, APC tells PDP
The Supreme Court on Friday delivered judgements on election petitions challenging the outcome of the 2023 governorship elections in eight states of the federation, thus bringing to an end a judicial process that has lingered since the election on 18 March 2023.
The states are Ebonyi, Lagos, Kano, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Abia and Zamfara.
The cases travelled all the way from the governorship election petitions tribunals in the eight states down to the Court of Appeal, before finally landing at the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land.
With the Supreme Court decisions on Friday, the electioneering phase has been concluded and every issue pertaining to the election disputes has been laid to rest as the apex court’s decisions are final and binding on all parties to the legal contests.
But how did the governors of these states fare at the Supreme Court? And what did the apex court say?
Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos)
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro, dismissed, as lacking merit, two separate appeals that challenged Sanwo-Olu’s return as winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.
The appeals were brought before the court by candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor.
Specifically, the LP and its candidate, Rhodes-Vivour, had prayed the court to determine whether Sanwo-Olu, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was qualified to contest the election considering that his deputy and running mate, Obafemi Hamzat, has dual citizenship.
The appellants alleged that the Lagos State deputy governor took the citizenship of the United States of America (USA). They argued that since the deputy governor, by his action, was constitutionally ineligible to contest the election, it invalidated Sanwo-Olu’s candidature at the election.
But in its lead judgement delivered by Justice Mohammed Garba Lawal, the Supreme Court said there was no evidence that Sanwo-Olu’s deputy denounced his Nigerian citizenship. It held that the prohibitions in Section 28 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not applicable to a person that is a Nigerian citizen by birth.
According to the Supreme Court, there is no law stripping a Nigerian citizen by birth from enjoying his status, rights, and privileges owing to the acquisition of the citizenship of another country through naturalization.
It held that the Appeal Court was right in affirming the judgement of the tribunal that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy were not disqualified from contesting the governorship election.
Abba Yusuf (Kano)
In the case of Abba Yusuf, the Supreme Court upheld his election of governor of Kano State, reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal and the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which earlier sacked the governor.
In determining the case, the apex court raised two issues: whether the lower court was right in deducting 165,616 from the votes the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced for the governor and whether the lower court could determine the issue of party membership.
In the judgement, Justice Okoro held that the tribunal was wrong in deducting 165,616 votes accrued to Yusuf in the election on grounds that the ballot papers were not signed and stamped by officials of INEC.
He said Section 71 of the Electoral Act which the tribunal relied upon to deduct the disputed votes does not apply in the instant case.
The Supreme Court subsequently restored the deducted 165,616 votes to reinstate the victory of Yusuf in the governorship election.
On the second issue, the Supreme Court again faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP as of the time he contested the election, adding that the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the court.
Justice Okoro observed that contrary to the appellate court, the tribunal never held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the poll but that his name was not in the NNPP’s membership register submitted to INEC.
The apex court subsequently set aside the judgement of the two lower courts for being perverse and restored the electoral victory of Abba Yusuf.
Caleb Muftwang (Plateau)
The Supreme Court reversed the sack of Caleb Mutfwang and affirmed him as governor of Plateau State.
A five-member panel led by Justice Emmanuel Agim reversed the decision of the appellate court for being perverse because the issue of the primary election that produced Mutfwang was outside the jurisdiction of the lower court.
The apex court pointed out that the validity of nomination and sponsorship is not a valid ground to void an election.
It held that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain it, besides the issue of sponsorship has elapsed long ago, adding that the petitioners not being members of the PDP have no locus to challenge the party’s primary election.
On the issue of whether the order of the Plateau State High Court can affect the National Executive Committee (NEC), the apex court held that the appellate court was wrong in holding that the order affects the NEC.
Justice Agim further stated that the issue of primary is an internal matter of political parties in which both the Tribunal and Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction.
He also pointed out that contrary to the claim of the petitioners and the judgement of the appellate court, the order of the Plateau High Court was not disobeyed by the PDP as evidence showed that a fresh primary was conducted.
He warned the legal profession to wake up or else it would render itself irrelevant to the society.
The presiding Justice, John Okoro, also lamented that a lot of people have suffered because of the wrongful judgements of the appellate court which had sacked several legislators who won elections under the platform of the PDP.
In her submission, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju also berated the appellate court for going into the issue of nomination and sponsorship despite several decisions of the apex court to the effect that another political party cannot challenge the primary election of another.
Bala Mohammed (Bauchi)
The Supreme Court upheld the election of Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, dismissing an appeal filed by the APC and its candidate, Sadique Abubakar. The APC and its candidate had alleged that the March 18 2023 election won by Mohammed 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 filled.
Dissatisfied with the concurrent verdicts of the two lower courts, the APC candidate lodged an appeal before the Supreme Court, contending that his case vis-à-vis the exhibits that were tendered in evidence by the parties was not properly evaluated by the tribunal.
But the apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro, dismissed the appeal for lack of merit, saying it found no reason to dislodge the judgements of the lower courts. It also resolved all the issues that were formulated by the appellants against them.
Alex Otti (Abia)
The election of Abia State governor, Alex Otti of the Labour Party, was affirmed by the Supreme Court, holding that the appellants failed to prove substantial non-compliance in their appeal, according to the lead judgement read by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji.
On the issue of Otti’s membership, the appellant had contended that the governor was not validly nominated and sponsored by the Labour Party (LP) at the time of the election. However, the appellate court held that the issue of membership is an internal affair and as such lacks jurisdiction.
The apex court faulted the appellants for bringing the appeal to the court, tagging it frivolous and vexatious.
Alex Otti had scored 175,466 votes to defeat Okey Ahiwe of the PDP, who polled 88,529 votes in the election early last year.
Bassey Otu (Cross River)
The Supreme Court also upheld the election of Cross River State governor, Bassey Otu. In its lead judgement delivered by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by the PDP and its candidate, Prof. Sandy Onor, to challenge the return of Otu of the APC as winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that the appeal was without merit and amounted to a waste of judicial time. It stressed that the appellants failed to establish their claim that Governor Otu was bereft of the requisite educational qualifications.
The apex court held that the appeal contained pre-election issues that had become statute-barred.
“The Supreme Court will not subvert the wishes of the people on inconsequential issues that are against the settled principles of law,” Justice Ogunwumiju held.
Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi)
In the case of Ebonyi State governor, Francis Nwifuru, the Supreme Court dismissed two separate appeals that sought to sack him from office, affirming the governor’s electoral victory.
The apex court, in its lead judgement delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, held that the appeals were “patently unmeritorious”.
The appeals, which challenged the return of Nwifuru as the valid winner of the governorship poll held in the state on March 18, 2023, were lodged by candidate of the PDP, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, and his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) counterpart, Prof. Bernard Odoh.
The Supreme Court held that it found no reason to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Nwifuru’s election.
Dauda Lawal (Zamfara)
The Supreme Court also upheld the election of the PDP’s Dauda Lawal at the March 2023 governorship election in Zamfara State.
The apex court set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal Abuja, which had declared the governorship election inconclusive, sacked the governor from office, and ordered a re-run in three local government areas of the state.
Delivering the lead decision of the court, a member of the five-member panel of the court, Justice Emmanuel Agim, described the judgement of the Court of Appeal as perverse.
“The decision of the Court of Appeal has no evidential foundation,” he said.
Justice Agim said the evidence of APC’s Bello Matawalle did not meet the standard of proof required for the allegations he levelled concerning the election.
“What is needed to prove the petition is the duplicate copies of the results which the petitioner failed to provide,” Justice Agim held.
“The allegation of over-voting failed because INEC did not provide the voter register, polling unit officer report, and testimony of people who were present at the polling unit. Sufficient evidence was not adduced by the petitioner.
“This court is of the view that the tribunal was right. The judgement of the Court of Appeal was perverse because the petitioner (Mr Matawalle) failed woefully to prove his allegations,” he said.
Post-judgement reactions
Reacting to the Supreme Court judgement, Lagos State Governor Sanwo-Olu described it as “a revalidation of residents’ position and a victory for democracy”.
In a statement he personally signed, Sanwo-Olu said, “With a deep sense of gratitude to The Almighty, I welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court, which today revalidated the position of Lagosians who freely cast their ballots on March 18, 2023.
“The victory is not just for my deputy, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat; it is for the rule of law, our democracy and Lagosians.”
In the same vein, Governors Yusuf, Muftwang, Lawal, Otti, Otu, Nwifuru, and Bala Mohammed all described the judgement as victory for democracy and therefore called on their opponents to join hands with them and move their states forward.
The presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, also congratulated all the governors that won at the Supreme Court on Friday.
The former Vice President, while reacting to the Supreme Court’s judgement in favour of governors elected on the platform of the PDP and NNPP, insisted that only a united opposition force can salvage Nigeria.
He said he was as prepared as ever to lead the charge, “alongside all our leaders and governors, for the good of our country”.
“Where justice is seen to have been substantially rendered, we, as patriots and citizens, will always applaud. There is a guaranteed continuation of the standards of good governance which the PDP has brought to the respective states,” he said.
Atiku further urged the respective PDP governors in Bauchi, Zamfara, Plateau, and the NNPP governor in Kano to see their victories at the Supreme Court as an opportunity to consolidate and expand the scope of good governance.
He noted that with the electioneering phase now concluded, the PDP would now be able to focus on its role as the major opposition party in the country.
Apologise to judges, courts, APC tells PDP
Meanwhile, the ruling APC welcomed the Supreme Court decisions but asked the opposition PDP to tender apology to the courts and judges for the attacks it mounted against the judiciary throughout the electoral cycle.
The party said the decisions by the apex court must serve as a warning to opposition politicians who vilified and denigrated the courts when judgements were not in their favour in the same cases.
In a statement issued in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, said the Supreme Court upheld the election of the party’s governorship candidates in Lagos, Ebonyi and Cross River States, but the appeals on Kano, Zamfara, Bauchi, Plateau and Abia States were decided in favour of other political parties and their candidates.
“While the apex court’s decisions will undoubtedly elicit mixed reactions and reviews, the decisions are final and binding on all parties to the legal contests. The decisions provide a strong affirmation of the authority, vibrancy and independence of the judiciary,” Morka said.
Morka said the APC has been consistent in its position that the judiciary must be left alone to perform its important duty of resolving disputes, including electoral disputes, as constitutionally mandated, noting that the Supreme decisions must “serve as a rebuke to political opposition figures that vilified and denigrated our courts when judgements were handed against them in these same matters”.
“Assuming that it has any spec of decency left, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must tender unreserved apology to the courts and our judges for the senseless, irresponsible, reckless and unjustified attacks it mounted against the judiciary throughout this electoral cycle,” he said.
