S’Court affirms Okowa, Ikpeazu, Ishaku, Bello’s elections

. Dismisses Ogboru, Otti, others appeals      

. PDP hails Apex Court’s ruling on Abia, Delta, Taraba gov’ship polls

The Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the election victories of Governors of Delta State Ifeanyi Okowa, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku and Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello.

The apex court in the unanimous decisions in separate appeals held that their election which were challenged by different appellants failed because the appellants could not substantiate claims of irregularities and electoral malpractices against their emergence as winners of the March 9, 2019 governorship election in their respective states.

The Supreme Court in arriving at its decisions in the various appeals held that it can only interfere in the decisions of the lower court when it was able to establish that such judgments were perversed or occasioned miscarriage of justice.

However, the four Justices who delivered lead judgments in the various appeals all held that the appellants did not adduce credible evidence to warrant judgments in their favour.

Justice Centus Nweze in his judgment in the appeal filed by Chief Great Ogboru held that the appellant nailed himself by dumping documents on the tribunal without demonstrating them as required by law.

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Justice Nweze further held that Ogboru laboured in vain in his petition by relying on hearsay evidence that cannot be given any probative value.

In addition, the Supreme Court held that the appellant failed to prove allegations of over voting and other electoral malpractices.

According to the judge, the appellants were wrong in anchoring their case on the smart card reader which the apex court had consistently held that is not superior to the manual accreditation method.

Ogboru through his counsel, Yunus Usman SAN, had alleged that 757,784 voters were accredited on the Election Day while Governor Okowa alone was allegedly allocated with 955,274 votes, adding that in 15 Local Government Areas out of the 25, number of voters superceded number of accredited voters.

However, Okowa’s counsel, Damian Dodo, SAN, informed the court that the petition which formed the basis of the appeal died at the tribunal because the appellants did not tender a single voter register to establish his allegations of over-voting.

The senior lawyer submitted that the smart card reader report relied upon by the appellant was self contradictory because Ogboru failed to state the number of votes allegedly allocated to the governor, while he called only five polling unit agents out of 896 polling units in the state as his witness.

However, in the judgment, Justice Nweze agreed with Dodo that the failure of the appellants to tender the voters register was fatal to their case, adding that Ogboru failed to show how the alleged over-voting affected his chances at the election.

He accordingly dismissed the appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit and held that Okowa was lawfully declared Governor of Delta State haven won majority of the votes cast at the March 9 governorship election in the state.

In the appeal filed by candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Alex Otti, against the election of Governor Ikpeazu, the Supreme in another unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Paul Galunje, held that the appeal lacked merit and was liable to dismissal.

The court agreed with Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who stood for the governor, that the allegation of over-voting was not successfully established.

Justice Galunje held that the appellants failed woefully to tender and demonstrate crucial documents such as the voter register and form EC8A (statement of results containing number of accredited voters and number of voters).

The court held that the mere dumping of documents was not appropriate at the election tribunal, adding that their makers must be called to demonstrate them.

The court also agreed with Olanipekun that section 49 of the Electoral Act which allowed manual voting system has not been deleted by the National Assembly and that voting through voter register supercedes any other electronic voting system.

He accordingly dismissed Otti’s appeal for lacking in merit.

Similarly, the apex court in another unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko, agreed with Governor Ishaku’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi, SAN, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had no candidate in the March 9 governorship election and ought not to have challenged the election in the first instance.

Justice Eko held that APC’s candidate, Abubakar Danladi, who was disqualified by a Federal High Court, was not lawfully substituted by the APC.

He further held that the fact that the APC came second in the March 9 governorship election in Taraba State did not confer participation of the party in the election, adding that votes cast for the APC are wasted and liable to be cancelled.

The court accordingly dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.

In the Niger State governorship tussle which borders on alleged non qualification and given false information, the apex court dismissed the appeal for being statute barred.

Delivering judgment in the appeal, Justice Mary Uwani Abaji held that the Supreme Court will not tamper with the concurrent decisions of both the Court of Appeal and the election petition tribunal.

Justice Abaji held that the Court of Appeal was right in holding that the decision of the tribunal was delivered outside the 180 days allowed by law.

According to the apex court, a judgment already declared a nullity by the Court of Appeal cannot confer any benefit on the PDP candidate and any other party.

The justices therefore agreed that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal and consequently struck it out for want of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hailed the ruling of the Supreme Court, upholding the elections of Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Darius Ishaku of Taraba State.

The party noted that the ruling was an inevitable validation of the wishes and aspiration of the people as expressed in the March 2019 governorship elections in the respective states.

The PDP observed that the ruling of the apex court is a victory for democracy and the triumph of the people over forces that sought to forcefully take over control of their states.

The party therefore urged the governors to continue in their qualitative governance for which the people overwhelmingly re-elected them.  

It also charged the governors to continue in their commitment to programmes that are geared towards empowering the people and reducing the level of poverty in the country.

The PDP reminded the governors as well as all other officials elected and appointed on the platform of the party that Nigerians across board are looking up to them for solution and direction in their overall effort to rescue the nation from the misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC).