S’Court affirms election of 4 Govs

.Amid protests by PDP, APC supporters .Benue, Adamawa govs know fate today

Contrary to speculations and fear among protesters in Abuja, the Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the election of Governors Abudllahi Ganduje of Kano State, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Simon Lalong of Plateau State and Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.

The court in affirming their elections dismissed the appeal filed by their opponents. In separate judgments delivered by four different justices of the apex court on the panel led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the court unanimously upheld the four governors’ elections.

The court dismissed four of appeals against the elections of Governors Ganduje, Tambuwal, Lalong and Mohammed of Kano State, Sokoto State, Plateau State and Bauchi State respectively for lacking in merit.

Delivering judgment in the Kano State governorship tussle, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta held that the appeal lacked merit because the appellants failed to prove their case.

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According to the judgment, the appellants could not prove that judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Ganduje was perverse and that it was delivered in error.

Justice Ngwuta noted that the appellants’ who anchored their case on only one ground, specifically paragraph C of section 138 of the Electoral Act,  failed to prove, “that the judgment of the lower court was perverse and how it was miscarriage of justice.

The apex court also faulted the appellants for relying on the said section to argue their case as the section cannot accommodate every infractions in the electoral process, adding that they also failed to amend their appeal to accommodate other issues raised in their appeal.

“I find that the appeal has no merit and it is hereby dismissed”, Justice Ngwuta held.

The apex court consequently agreed with the concurrent judgment of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal which held that Ganduje was rightly declared winner of the March 9 governorship election in Kano State.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abbah Yusuf in his appeal had asked the apex court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal and Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal both of which affirmed Ganduje as lawfully elected Governor of Kano State.

Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, counsel to the appeallants, urged the court to nullify the election of Ganduje on the grounds that his victory was based on a purported illegal bye election conducted in 207 polling units.

Awomolo had argued that the State Returning Officer who had conducted the bye election in the affected polling units lacked the legal powers to do so.

He added that the State Returning Officer after declaring the entire results of election in the 44 local government areas of Kano State was wrong to have gone ahead to cancel election in 207 polling units and conducting a bye election thereafter.

Awomolo therefore urged the court to nullify the purported bye election conducted on March 23 in the 207 polling units and declare his client winner based on the results declared by the State Returning Officer on March 11, 2019.

However, the respondents in their various submissions urged the court to dismiss the appeal on grounds that the State Returning Officer did not cancel election of 207 polling units as claimed by the appellants.

Counsel to INEC, Ahmed Raji, SAN, in his submissions, told the apex court that the appellants both at the tribunal and Court of Appeal failed to prove that votes were cancelled in 207 wards.

According to Raji, record only showed the inability of the State Returning Officer to collate results of the affected polling units which was occasioned by the action of the appellants own witness, who in his evidence admitted carting away ballot boxes of Galma wards belonging to the 207 polling units.

Both lawyers to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ganduje aligned themselves with Raji’s submissions and urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking merit.

In the case of Sokoto State, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, who delivered the lead judgment of the apex court, held that the case of the appellants lacked merit and was liable for dismissal.

In dismissing the appeal, Justice Abba-Aji held that the appellants failed to tie evidence adduced to their case, both at the tribunal and Court of Appeal, adding that it is not the duty of the court to do so on behalf of the appellants.

While stating that the appellants merely dumped documents before the court, the apex court held that it is not the duty of the court to proceed through documents tendered by parties which were not demonstrated in the open court.

Abba-Aji stressed that the court cannot go on a voyage to discover which of the documents to attach to the individual witnesses because the documents were not properly certified.

“A party tendering documents owe a duty to ensure that such documents or exhibits are nailed to the relevant aspect of his case”, the apex court held.

In addition, Justice Abba-Aji said out of the 12 witnesses called by the appellants while one was deemed to have abandoned his evidence, the evidence of the remaining 11 is inadmissible because the appellants failed to tender the original version of their statements made in Hausa language.

The court further held that it was not enough to tender the translated version of the witnesses, adding that doing so without attaching the Hausa language version amounts to hearsay.

The apex court also faulted the case of the appellants on the ground of their failure to call the translator of the witnesses’ statements to confirm that what he translated was correct and from the individual witnesses.

Justice Abba-Aji held that the lower court was right to reject the tendered documents in evidence because they did not meet the necessary requirements for admittance in an election matter.

Having upheld the concurrent judgments of the lower courts, Justice Abba-Aji consequently declared that Tambuwal was duly elected Governor of Sokoto State.

The apex court also dismissed the appeal challenging the return of Simon Lalong as duly elected Governor of Plateau State.

The court in a unanimous judgment held that the appellants, Senator Jeremiah Useni and his party, PDP, failed to prove allegations levelled against the election victory of Lalong at the March 9 governorship election in Plateau State.

The apex court in the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Adamu Galinje affirmed the election of Lalong as duly elected governor of Plateau State.

It noted that the issue of qualification upon which the appellants predicated their case was a constitutional matter, adding that the appellants apart from failing to prove that Lalong did not meet the minimum requirement for contesting the election did not show how the issue of alleged non compliance affected the outcome of the poll.

The court in addition held that the appellants failed to prove their allegations of malpractices, over voting and non-compliance in their appeal and as such the appeal was dismissed.

 In the case of Bauchi State, the apex court in the unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Dattijo also dismissed the appeal filed by former governor Mohammed Abubakar in his re-election bid on the grounds that the petition lacked merit.

According to the judgment, the apex court can only set aside the judgment of the lower court where it is proved that there was evidence of perverseness which the lower failed correct. But in this case nothing was demonstrated to show the lower judgment was perverse.

Justice Dattijo in addition agreed with the decision of the lower court which expunged the evidence of some witnesses of the appellants on the grounds that their evidence in Hausa language was not tendered alongside the translated version tendered before the court.

The judgments were delivered amidst tight security following massive demonstration in the three arms zone in Abuja by supporters of PDP and APC over fears that the apex court may sack any of their governors.

Meanwhile, the governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom and his Adamawa State counterpart, Ahmad Filtiri, will know their fate today, as Supreme Court hears appeal challenging their election.