Alex Enumah in Abuja
Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf and his counterparts from Bauchi, Bala Mohammed; Zamfara, Dauda Lawal and Plateau, Caleb Mutfwang, have stormed the Supreme Court, where judgments would be delivered in appeals challenging their elections as governors.
Their cases were among the eight listed for judgment by the apex court Friday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Abba Yusuf of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Kano State, having won majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.
But, the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, in a judgment in September 2023, voided Yusuf’s election after it deducted over 160,000 votes accrued to the NNPP on the grounds that the ballot papers used for the poll were not signed and stamped by officials of the electoral umpire.
The deduction then gave Nasiru Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the lead and was subsequently declared as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
Besides affirming the judgment of the tribunal, the appellate court went ahead to void Yusuf’s participation in the March 18 governorship election, who INEC declared winner on grounds of unlawful and illegal nomination and sponsorship.
Yusuf and the NNPP, in their appeal, urged the apex court to set aside the two lower courts’ decisions because the tribunal erred in law when it deducted his over 160,000 votes on account of not been signed and stamped by INEC officials.
Besides, the appellants further faulted the judgment of the appellate court, arguing that the issue of nomination and sponsorship is a pre-election matter, which the appellate court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain.
They therefore urged the Supreme Court to nullify and set aside the concurrent judgments of the two lower courts and affirm his election as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
For Plateau, the battle is between the incumbent, Mutfwang and the APC’s candidate, Nentawe Goshwe.
INEC had on March 20, 2023, declared Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the Plateau governorship election having scored 525,299 votes, against the 481,370 votes of of the APC and its candidate, Nentawe Goshwe.
In its judgment in September 2023, the three-member panel of the Plateau tribunal affirmed Mutfwang’s election and dismissed Goshwe’s petition for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Not satisfied, the petitioners proceeded to the appellate court where the three-man panel voided the judgment of the tribunal and ordered the sack of Mutfwang as governor on grounds of illegal nomination.
The appellate court had agreed with the appellants that the primary election that produced Mutfwang as the candidate of the PDP was illegal, unlawful and constituted in violation of a court order.
The appellate court subsequently ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Goshwe after withdrawing the earlier one issued to Mutfwang.
Dissatisfied, Mutfwang had approached the apex court to set aside the judgment of the appellate court on grounds that the issue of qualification is a pre-election matter, adding that the party did not at any time violate the order of court regarding the organizing of a fresh congress.
Besides, the apex court, during the hearing on Tuesday, raised the issue of jurisdiction, pointing out that the order of the High Court was made outside jurisdiction as courts cannot interfere with the internal matters of political parties.
Other matters slated for judgments are that of PDP’s Abdulazeez Adediran popular known as Jandor and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP).
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC, had polled 762,134 votes to defeat his close challenger, Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes, with Jandor coming a distant third with 62,449 votes.
In Zamfara State, the battle is between Governor Dauda Lawal and former Governor Bello Matawalle. INEC had declared Lawal of the PDP governor having scored a total of 377,726 votes to defeat then incumbent governor Matawalle who scored 311,976 votes.
Lawal’s election was also affirmed by the Zamfara Election Petitions Tribunal last September, after dismissing Matawalle’s petition for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
Besides, the tribunal awarded a sum of N500,000 fine against the petitioners for filing the petition.
However, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Oyebisi Folayemi, nullified the return of Governor Lawal as the winner of the governorship poll.
Justice Sybil Nwaka ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in three local government areas of the state, where elections were not held previously or where results from various polling units were not counted.
Dissatisfied, Lawal had approached the apex court to set aside the judgment of the appellate court and affirm the judgment of the tribunal which affirmed his victory at the poll.
However, much is not expected in the appeals involving Bauchi and Ebonyi States governorship appeals since the apex court hardly upturn concurrent findings of the lower courts especially when new and convincing evidence were not presented at the hearing.
