The Supreme Court of Nigeria will on Friday, deliver judgment in the appeals challenging the election of eight state governors in the March 18, 2023 governorship elections.
The state governors, whose fate will be decided by the Supreme Court are that of Kano, Abba Kabir Yusuf; Bauchi, Bala Mohammed; Plateau, Caleb Mutfwang; Ebonyi, Francis Nwifuru; Cross River, Bassey Otu; Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Zamfara state, Dauda Lawal; and Abia, Alex Otti.
The Supreme Court, on 21st December reserved judgment in an appeal brought before it by Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano state, challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which sacked him from office.
After hearing the submissions of counsel in the matter and the processes filed had been adopted, the five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang John Okoro reserved judgment.
The Court of Appeal had, on November 17, in a unanimous judgment of a three-member panel, upheld the decision of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sacked Governor Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Nasiru Gawuna, winner of the March 18 poll.
The appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by Governor Yusuf based on his membership status in the NNPP.
However, the judgment had elicited confusion when on Tuesday, November 21, the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court judgment surfaced with contradictions as the CTC showed that all the issues were resolved in favour of Governor Yusuf.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged a clerical error in the CTC of its judgment and promised correction.
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), representing the governor in the matter, had urged the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Appeal Court and that of the Tribunal.
Olanipekun urged the apex court to determine whether or not, INEC’s guidelines will be a basis for nullifying the election victory of his candidate who won the election by a margin of over 100,000.
He argued that, this is the first time in the annals of electoral jurisprudence where an election was nullified on the grounds that ballot papers were not signed or stamped at the back, adding that, INEC guidelines does not envisage that the courts would nullify an election on the basis of INEC purportedly failing to stamp ballot papers on the back.
The governor’s legal team maintained that its client’s membership of the NNPP is a pre-election matter and the appellate court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter
“The judgement of the lower courts is very unfair to the appellant and we urge your lordships to upturn it,” Olanipekun submitted.
In his submissions, counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Akin Olujimi(SAN) maintained that the Electoral Act mandates INEC’s presiding officers to sign the back of ballot papers after the conclusion of the election.
On the issue of party membership, he argued that the NNPP membership register did not show the name of Abba Yusuf on it.
Counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) supported the arguments of Olanipekun and further submitted that the decisions of the lower courts were flawed.
Mahmoud said the testimony of a subpoenaed witness(PW32) which the tribunal relied on to sack Abba Yusuf, were not front-loaded along with the petition at the tribunal contrary to the Electoral Act.
He admitted that the ballot papers were issued by INEC and told the court that, it was not the duty of a voter to check if ballot papers were signed or not, but that of the party agents.
He said INEC’s contention is that the tribunal went far beyond its powers in vetting each of the ballot papers in their chambers and not in open court and contended that membership is clearly an internal affairs of a political party and Abba Yusuf’s name was forwarded to INEC prior to the election while his party membership card was tendered in evidence at the tribunal.
Counsel for the NNPP, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) said ballot papers were actually cast at the polling units but the APC legal team did not specify the polling units affected at the Tribunal in line with rules of court.
Justice Okoro asked him what should be the effect going forward, when ballot papers that are issued by INEC are not stamped by its officials.
“Who should suffer? Is it the guy that voted, INEC or the person voted for?” Okoro asked.
Awomolo said ballot papers not signed ought not to affect the validity of an election and submitted that, “election is the decision of the people”, insisting that the Tribunal was wrong to recount the ballots in its chambers.
The NNPP counsel added that not a single witness told the Tribunal that ballot papers were not stamped and urged the apex court to restore the 165,165 cancelled votes of Abba Yusuf and affirm his election.
In the same vein, the Supreme Court also reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Sadique Abubakar, against the judgment of the Bauchi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Bala Mohammed’s election.
