Supreme Court: Sweet victory for Sanwo-Olu, seven other governors.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Plateau, Zamfara States counterparts; Alex Otti, Bala Mohammed, Bassey Otu, Francis Nwifuru, Caleb Mutfwang and Dauda Lawal
The Supreme Court on Friday put to rest legal battles arising from the March 18, 2023 governorship elections in eight states.
Candidates and their parties who felt the elections should have swayed their way had approached the Supreme Court.
However, the apex court on Friday affirmed the victory of Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kano, Plateau, Zamfara states counterparts; Alex Otti, Bala Mohammed, Bassey Otu, Abba Yusuf, Francis Nwifuru, Caleb Mutfwang, and Dauda Lawal.
The court affirmed the election of Sanwo-Olu which was earlier upheld by the tribunal and Appeal Court in the state.
The Labour Party candidate in the election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, had in his appeal claimed that Sanwo-Olu’s running mate, Obafemi Hamzat, had renounced his citizenship as a Nigerian.
The court held that Sanwo-Olu’s deputy is a Nigerian by birth, adding that renunciation of citizenship of a citizen by birth must be registered by the Nigerian president, adding that the appellant did not provide any evidence to that effect.
The court, however, dismissed the appeal by the Labour Party candidate for lacking in merit.
Also, Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, who is the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, on his part, contended that the name Sanwo-Olu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission was different from that contained in his WAEC certificate.
The apex court, while dismissing the appeal, described it as “academic”.
Also, the apex court affirmed the election of the governor of Cross River Governor, Bassey Otu.
The court, while dismissing the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Sandy Onar, described it as a waste of judicial time and resources.
Otu was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
Meanwhile, the court threw out the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bauchi State, Sadique Abubakar’s appeal, and affirmed the election of Governor Bala Mohammed.
Abubakar had alleged massive non-compliance with the Electoral Act during the poll at the two courts.
Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, in his lead judgment on Friday, resolved all six issues against the appellant and held that the appeal was devoid of merit
Meanwhile, despite the initial scare, the Supreme Court set aside the lower courts’ decisions sacking Governor Abba Yusuff of Kano State.
The tribunal had set aside the governor’s victory after declaring 165,663 of his votes invalid.
The tribunal held that the deducted votes were from ballot papers that were neither stamped nor signed.
The court, however, declared Nasiru Gawuna of the APC winner of the election.
But the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that all the ballot papers from which the appellant votes were deducted should be restored to the governor.
Reading the judgment, Justice John Okoro, said the said paper contains the logo of INEC and the coat of arms as prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act.
He also held that the issue of party membership is an internal affair of the party.
The Supreme Court also upheld the election of Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal.
Reading the lead judgment at the Supreme Court, Justice Emmanuel Agim described the decision of the appeal court as perverse.
He held that the respondents did not provide substantial evidence to prove their allegations of overvoting among others.
Agim said, “The court of appeal’s decision is perverse. It has no evidential foundation. The appeal has merit, it succeeds and it is allowed. The order that the election is inclusive is hereby set aside. The election of the appellant is upheld.”
Also, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Ebonyi Governor, Francis Nwifuru.
The PDP and its candidate, Ifeanyi Odii, had challenged the election of Nwifuru of the APC in Ebonyi state. Odii had lost at both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
Reading the lead judgment on Friday, Justice Tijani Abubakar held that Section 177(c) of the constitution didn’t provide for consideration on how the political parties arrive at the decision to sponsor a candidate.
He held that once a candidate satisfies the provisions of 177 and is not disqualified by Section 182 of the constitution, the candidate becomes automatically qualified to contest the governorship election.
He held that the appeal was unmeritorious and dismissed it.
Meanwhile, the apex court also affirmed the election of Alex Otti as the duly elected governor of Abia State.
The court dismissed the appeals by the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Okey Ahiwe, and Ikechi Emenike of the APC.
Otti of the Labour Party polled 175,466 votes to defeat his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe of the PDP, who scored 88,529 votes in the March 18 governorship election.
The Supreme Court upheld the election of Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang.
Reading the judgment of the apex court on Friday, Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the APC and its candidate are not members of the PDP and cannot challenge the primary election of the PDP.
He also held that the tribunal and court of appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the issue.
Agim noted that the petition of the APC in the first place was an abuse of the court process and faulted the appeal court for sacking the governor.
He said, “The petition by the APC and its candidates are abuse of the court process. I wonder why the matter came to court at all. This appeal is allowed.”
“My worry is that a lot of people have suffered as a result of this,” Justice John Okoro said while agreeing with the lead judgment.
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