THE Supreme Court today affirmed the elections of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Bala Mohammed, Abba Yusuf, Lawal Dauda, Alex Otti, Caleb Mutfwang and Francis Nwifuru as the duly elected governors of Lagos, Bauchi, Kano, Zamfara, Abia, Plateau and Ebonyi States respectively.
For Lagos, the five-member panel in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justices Lawal Garba and Adamu Jauro, affirmed the declaration of the APC’s candidate as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election, after dismissing two separate appeals challenging his victory.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), who came second and Abdulazeez Adediran popularly known as Jandor of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who came third had challenged the election of Sanwo-Olu on grounds of alleged irregularities, malpractices non-compliance as well as non-qualification.
They had specifically argued that the Deputy Governor, who acquired citizenship of the United States of America, is not qualified to contest elective position and as such his nomination as deputy Governor was unlawful null and void.
They also argued that his alleged unlawful nomination affects the qualification of Sanwo-Olu, hence the court should nullify their participation in the governorship election.
MEANWHILE, the apex court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal and dismissed the appeal by Sadique Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress for lacking in merit.
The presiding judge, Justice Chidi Nwaoma Uwa, read the judgment in the order of the appellant’s plea before the appeal court.
On plea number one, the appellant had pleaded that the election be nullified because the forms and booklets used in the election were not properly filled. The court ruled that the appellant failed to prove this allegation with the needed evidence.
IN Governor Abba’s case, Justice John Okoro, who read the lead Judgement, said the Court of Appeal was wrong in affirming the decision of the tribunal, which held that Yusuf did not win the majority of lawful votes cast in the governorship election of March 18, 2023.
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 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.
According to him, Section 71 of the Eectoral Act relied upon by the tribunal to deduct the disputed votes does not apply in the instant case.
The Supreme court Panel of five Justices, subsequently went ahead to restore 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 judgment of the two lower courts for being perverse and restored the electoral victory of Abba Yusuf.
DELIVERING the lead decision of the Supreme Court on Zamfara, Emmanuel Agim described the judgement of the lower Court of Appeal as perverse. He said the lower court’s decision lacked evidential foundation.
“The decision of the Court of Appeal has no evidential foundation.
“The judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered in November is set aside. The order setting aside the appellant’s election is set aside. And the election of the Appellant is upheld.” Agim rules.
