The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected Governor of Kaduna State.
A five-member panel of the apex court unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by Mohammed Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for lacking merit.
Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment, held that the appellant “has nothing useful to ask this Court.”
He further described the appeal as “frivolous and vexatious” and went ahead to dismiss it.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sani as winner of the poll after he scored 730, 001 votes to defeat Ashiru, who polled 719, 196 votes in the March 18 governorship election.
Not satisfied with the outcome, the PDP and Ashiru approached the Tribunal and in September 2023, two of the three judges on the tribunal panel dismissed the petition on technical grounds.
Victor Oviawie, who led the panel, deemed the petition abandoned, noting that the PDP and its candidate did not file their pre-hearing application within the time prescribed by law.
Similarly, in November 2023, the court of appeal affirmed Sani’s election.
Also, the apex Court affirmed Inuwa Yahaya’s re-election as the Governor of Gombe State.
The five-member panel led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, held that the appeal by Jibrin Barde, candidate of the PDP, lacks merit.
Affirming the verdict of the court of appeal which upheld Yahaya’s victory, Kekere-Ekun held that the concurrent findings were not shown to be perverse enough to warrant being set aside.
Yahaya was however declared winner of the March 18 governorship election after he scored 342,821 votes to defeat his closest rival, Barde who polled 233,131 votes.
PDP and its candidate went on to file a petition claiming that Yahaya, who contested on the platform of the APC, was not re-elected by a majority of lawful votes.
The opposition party alleged cases of ballot box stuffing and thumbprinting done by Yahaya’s supporters in nine of the state’s 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) .
The Tribunal dismissed the suit filed by the party and Barde.
Displeased, Barde and PDP approached the Appeal Court.
The appellate court equally dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate.
For Kebbi State, the Court dismissed the appeal by PDP and its candidate, Aminu Bande, seeking to sack Nasir Idris as the Governor.
The apex Court held in its ruling that the appeal lacked merit.
“My conclusion is that this appeal lacks merit and it is dismissed,” Uwani Abba-Aji, who read the lead judgment, said.
Recall that I March 2023, INEC declared the Kebbi gubernatorial election inconclusive owing to “massive vote cancellation and over-voting” in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the State.
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The Commission, which later fixed April 15, 2023 for a supplementary election, declared Idris of the APC winner, having scored 409,225 votes to beat PDP’s Aminu Bande, who got 360,940 votes.
However, Bande and PDP rejected the result and filed a petition before the Tribunal.
The petitioners alleged that there was over-voting in some polling units and that Idris was not qualified to contest the poll.
They also alleged that the Deputy Governor, Umar Abubakar Tafida had submitted a fake secondary school testimonial to INEC.
In the judgment, Ofem Ofem, the chairman of the Tribunal, held that the petitioners failed to prove beyond doubt that the third respondent (deputy) presented a fake certificate to INEC.
On the issue of over-voting, Ofem said out of the 59 polling units being questioned, irregularities were discovered in nine.
The panel deducted 1,735 votes from APC while over 900 votes were also taken away from PDP’s results.
Ofem, however, said the deduction of the votes would not affect the margin between the election winner and the runner-up.
He added that there was no substantial evidence to prove over-voting and irregularities in other polling units.
Other allegations were dismissed and Idris was affirmed as the duly elected governor of the state.
The Court of Appeal also affirmed the Governor’s election.
Lastly, Abdullahi Sule was announced as the duly elected Governor of Nasarawa State.
In the judgment, Kekere-Ekun, who read the lead judgment, held that the verdict of appellate court, which affirmed Sule’s election, was “comprehensive and well considered.”
Consequently, all five-member panel of the apex court dismissed the appeals filed by David Ombugadu, candidate of the PDP.
INEC had declared Sule as winner of the election with 347,209 votes in March 2023, with Ombugadu polling second with 283,016 votes.
However, the PDP candidate expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the governorship election, citing alleged irregularities.
But in October 2023, the election petition tribunal in Lafia nullified Sule’s victory and declared Ombugadu as winner of the poll.
Sule and the APC sought to overturn the verdict of the tribunal.
The Court of Appeal faulted the verdict of the Tribunal later in November 2023 and affirmed Sule’s election as Governor.
Meanwhile, a group of youths took to the streets to protest the verdict affirming Sule as Governor
The protesters burnt tyres at the PDP secretariat in Lafia, as disclosed by Channels Television.
They also erected bonfires and blocked a highway that leads to Jos, the Plateau State capital.
The activities of the protesters led to the sudden closure of schools and businesses in Lafia, a town connecting with the Federal Capital Territory.
