Kaduna Guber: Supreme Court Affirms Gov Sani’s Election

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The hope of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Kaduna State, Isa Ashiru, of taking over the saddle of leadership in Kaduna State was completely dashed on Friday, following the dismissal of their appeal by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, which is the final court in the land and last bus stop for the governorship election litigations, in a judgment delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, held that the appeal was incompetent and lacking in merit.

According to Justice Abubakar, the appellate court was in order when it held that the case of the appellants was completely devoid of merit.

“The appeal is frivolous, vexatious and irritating. It therefore deserves to be dismissed, and it is hereby dismissed,” Justice Abubakar held.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared APC’s Uba Sani as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election having scored majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.

However, a ray of hope dawned on the PDP and Ashiru when the Kaduna Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sacked Governor Sani, on the grounds that the election that produced him was inconclusive.

The tribunal had also ordered a supplementary election in seven wards of four local government areas.

The APC had defeated the PDP with a slim margin of about 10,000 votes, which the appellants claimed would not have been possible without the alleged irregularities, malpractices and noncompliance with the Electoral Act during the election.

INEC had declared Sani winner of the governorship election having scored a total of 730,001 votes to defeat Ashiru, with 719,196 votes.

However, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal voided the order of the Kaduna State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, for a supplementary election.

The appellate court voided the order for supplementary election while delivering judgment in two separate appeals by Sani and the APC on one hand, and Ashiru and the PDP on the other.

While the three-member panel led by Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, dismissed the appeal by Ashiru for lacking in merit, it held that that of Sani was meritorious and subsequently allowed it and granted the reliefs requested by the governor.

Consequently, the panel affirmed the election of Sani as Governor of Kaduna State and set aside the judgment of the tribunal which had declared the election that produced Sani as Governor inconclusive.

In voiding the decision of the lower tribunal, Justice Obietonbara Daniel-Kalio, who delivered the unanimous judgment, held that the evidence relied upon by the tribunal to declare the election inconclusive were manifestly bad, unreliable and ought not to have been given any probative value.

According to the judgment, the evidence the tribunal acted upon in ordering the conduct of supplementary polls in 22 polling units of four local government areas (LGAs) of the state where the exercise was deemed inconclusive was inadmissible.

Besides, the appellate court held that a key witness called by the PDP at the tribunal merely gave hearsay evidence because he was not present when the malpractices he alleged happened.

Meanwhile, the court held that the tribunal was right in dismissing the petition of the PDP and Ashiru because the petitioners abandoned their petition owing to their failure to apply for issuance of pre-hearing information sheet after close of pleadings as required by paragraph 18(1) of the first scheduled to the Electoral Act, 2022.

Other members of the panel who agreed with the lead judgment are James Abundaga and Mohamed Idris.

The tribunal in a split judgment of two-to-one upheld the election of Governor Sani. The majority judgment had held that Ashiru and PDP’s petition was incompetent having been abandoned by the petitioners, adding that their pre-hearing application was not filed within the time prescribed by law.

The minority judgment however agreed with the petitioners that there was evidence of irregularities and non-compliance in four local government areas and subsequently declared the election inconclusive.