The Supreme Court on Tuesday, reserved judgment in the Nasarawa and Kebbi states’ governorship election petition appeals brought before it.
While the legal battle, in the case of Nasarawa state is between the incumbent governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Emmanuel David Ombugadu, that of Kebbi state is between Governor Nasir Idris of the APC and the governorship candidate of the PDP in the Match 18 governorship election, Aminu Bande and his party.
At the proceedings on Tuesday, lead counsel to the PDP and its governorship candidate, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) urged the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgment of the Court of Appeal which affirmed Engr. Sule as the lawfully elected governor of Nasarawa state.
In its place, Agabi prayed the apex court to restore the October 2, 2023 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal granted in favour of PDP and Ombugadu, adding that, the Court of Appeal unjustly nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and unjustly declared Sule as winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.
Agabi specifically prayed the Supreme Court to be meaningful by declaring PDP and Ombugadu as winners as rightly done by the Tribunal.
However, Governor Sule, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and APC, in their submissions, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.
APC lawyers, led by Akin Olujinmi (SAN) while adopting his brief of arguments asked the apex court to carefully look into the cited authorities to back up their request for dismissal of the case.
After taking arguments from counsel in the appeals, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun reserved judgment to a date to be communicated to parties involved.
The Appeal Court had on November 23 last year reversed the sack of Gov Sule by the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2.
The Appellate Court held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal said the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law and that, no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.
The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law.
Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the PDP was nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal and ruled that the Tribunal denied the Governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition.
Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the Tribunal invalid.
In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state.
Also on Tuesday, the Supreme Court reserved judgment on the governorship election dispute between Nasir Idris of the APC and Aminu Bande of the PDP.
The five-member panel of Justices of the apex court, led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun reserved the judgment after parties in the petition adopted their processes.
Before the court reserved judgment, counsel to the respondents urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit and uphold the judgments of the lower courts that upheld the election.
The appellant counsel, while adopting his process urged the apex court to find merit in the appeal and allow it
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had upheld the election of Governor Nasir Idris of Kebbi State after dismissing the appeal filed by the PDP and its candidate, Aminu Bande, for lacking in merit.
The court, in a judgment delivered by Ndukwe Anyannwu, resolved all the five issues formulated for determination in favour of the governor and against the PDP with its candidate, noting that, the appellants failed to establish all the allegations brought up against the governor in their petition.
It held that the allegations of forgery of testimonial brought against the deputy governor of the state, Abubakar Tafida could not be established as required by law.
The appellate court also held that the issue of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election could not stand because the appellants failed to prove how the allegations substantially affected the poll.
The court, consequently affirmed the judgment of the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had, on October 5, affirmed Idris as the duly elected governor of Kebbi state.
INEC had declared the March 18 Kebbi state governorship election inconclusive owing to “massive vote cancellation and over-voting” in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state and later fixed April 15 for a supplementary election.
At the end of the exercise, Idris, the candidate of the APC scored 409,225 votes to beat Bande, who got 360,940 votes.
Bande and his party rejected the result and filed a petition before the tribunal, alleging that there was over-voting in some polling units and that Idris was not qualified to contest the election.
They also alleged that the deputy governor had submitted a fake secondary school testimonial to INEC.
The tribunal, in its judgment held that the petitioners failed to prove beyond doubt that the third respondent (deputy governor) presented a fake certificate to INEC as the testimonial in question was duly signed and issued to him by the then principal of Sultan Abubakar College, Sokoto in 1982.
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