NIGERIA: The Supreme Court, today, affirmed the election victory of Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State. In the same vein, the Supreme Court also upheld the election of Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
For Ebonyi, the court, in its lead judgment that was delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, dismissed two separate appeals that sought to sack Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from office, reports Vanguard.
It held that the appeals were “patently unmeritorious.”
The appeals, which challenged the return of Nwifuru as the valid winner of the governorship poll that held in the state on March 18, 2023, were lodged by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, as well as his counterpart from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Prof. Benard Odoh.
The Supreme Court held that it found no reason to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Nwifuru’s election.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, declared that Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Dr. Odii of the PDP, who scored 80,191 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, both candidates of the PDP and APGA approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.
The petitioners, among other things, sought Nwifuru’s disqualification on the grounds of certificate forgery and his alleged ineligibility to stand for the election.
The petitioners told the tribunal that Nwifuru’s election victory was characterised by corrupt practices, alleging that there was substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Besides, they argued that Nwifuru did not validly resign from the PDP before he was nominated as the governorship candidate of the APC.
According to the petitioners, Nwifuru, being a PDP member at all material times before the governorship poll, was not eligible under Section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to have been sponsored by the APC to contest as its flag-bearer.
They told the tribunal that prior to the governorship contest, Nwifuru, who was elected into the Ebonyi State House of Assembly in 1999, served as Speaker while on the ticket of the PDP until May 2023.
They argued that Nwifuru was, at the time of the election, still a member of the PDP and, as such, was not eligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC.
Consequently, the PDP and its candidate, in the joint petition they filed through their legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, prayed to the tribunal to declare that they were the valid winners of the governorship election.
They further prayed to the court to withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to Governor Nwifuru by INEC and issue a fresh one to Dr. Odii.
More so, the petitioners cited a subsisting judgement of a High Court in Ebonyi State, delivered by Justice Henry Njoku, which they said held that Nwifuru and other lawmakers in the state who purportedly defected to the APC are still members of the PDP.
Likewise, APGA and its candidate, Odoh, prayed to the tribunal to nullify the election and order a fresh one.
However, the tribunal, on September 27, 2023, dismissed all the petitions as lacking in merit.
According to the tribunal, the petitioners failed to establish their allegations that the APC candidate did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast at the election.
The tribunal noted that some of the grounds of the petitions were pre-election issues that were not only within the realm of domestic affairs of a political party but equally not justiceable.
It held that the petitioners lacked the locus standi to challenge the nomination of Governor Nwifuru by the APC to contest the election.
The tribunal added that the petitioners failed to produce evidence and details of the polling units where the alleged infractions occurred.
The judgment of the tribunal was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal, a development that led to the appeals the Supreme Court dismissed on Friday.
Supreme Court upholds election of Zamfara governor, Dauda Lawal
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, today, also upheld the election of Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
The apex court vacated the November 16, 2023 judgement of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which declared the governorship election that held in the state on March 18, as inconclusive.
It held that Lawal, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, secured the majority of lawful votes and was rightly declared the winner of the gubernatorial contest by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court, described the verdict of the appellate court as “perverse”.
It restored the earlier decision of the Zamfara State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which affirmed Lawal’s election victory.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared that Governor Lawal of the PDP polled a total of 377,726 votes to defeat the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, who scored 311,976 votes.
The declaration by INEC was on September 18, 2023, affirmed by the tribunal which held that Matawalle, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, failed to establish his allegation that some polling unit results were excluded by the electoral body.
The tribunal further held that Matawalle and his party failed to prove their claim that INEC did not comply with electoral rules while conducting the election, even as it awarded a cost of N500,000 against the Appellants.
However, the appellate court voided the judgment of the tribunal and declared the Zamfara State governorship election as inconclusive.
The appellate court nullified the return of Governor Dauda as the winner of the gubernatorial contest.
It ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in three Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state where election results were either not counted or unlawfully cancelled.
Specifically, while the appellate court ordered a fresh poll in the entire Maradun LGA of the state, it directed INEC to hold elections in some polling units in Birnin-Magaji and Bukyum LGAs.
The appellate court held that the tribunal wrongly evaluated the evidence that was presented before it by the parties.
It held that INEC acted wrongly when it relied on information it obtained from its IReV portal to collate the final result of the governorship election.
According to the court, the IReV was only meant for the benefit of the public and not to serve as an election result collation platform.
Besides, the appellate court stressed that going by the margin of lead principle, INEC, ought not have made a return in the election, considering the existence of over 98, 904 votes in the three affected LGAs.
It held that the Appellant, Matawalle, successfully discharged the burden of proof that was placed on him by the law to warrant the invalidation of the declaration of Governor Lawal as the bonafide winner of the gubernatorial election.
“The 1st Respondent was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes. His return was not in compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act,” the appellate court held.
However, in its judgement today, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeal decision for being perverse and against the weight of evidence.
