The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the electoral victories of six governors who won the March 18, 2023 governorship elections in their states.
Governors Abdullahi Sule of Nasarwa, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta, Muhammad Yahaya of Gombe and Nasir Idris of
Kebbi all had their victories in the March 18, 2023 governorship election sealed by the apex court.
The affirmation followed the dismissal of various appeals seeking the nullification of their elections.
DELTA
The appeal had challenged the judgment of the Court of Appeal which affirmed the election of Sheriff Oborevwori as governor of Delta State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Oborevwori, candidate of the PDP winner.
Aggrieved by the outcome of the poll, other candidates, including Ovie Omo-Agege of the APC, Ken Pela of the
Labour Party and Kenneth Gbagi of the SDP, filed separate petitions before the tribunal.
The tribunal sitting in Asaba on September 29, upheld Oborevwori as winner of the election.
Also, the Court of Appeal affirmed his election, having dismissed the appeals by the APC, SDP and LP on November 24, 2023.
Not satisfied with the dismissal of his petition, Omo-Agege and APC filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, seeking the setting aside of the judgement of the two lower courts.
Omo-Agege had contended that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
Delivering judgment on the appeal, a five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro dismissed the appeal for lacking merit and being incompetent.
In a unanimous decision, the panel held that there was substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the poll.
Similarly, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), challenging the election of Oborevwori.
NASARAWA
A five-man panel of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by David Ombugadu of the PDP seeking to upturn the electoral victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule.
INEC had declared Sule winner of the election with 347,209 votes to beat Ombugadu, who polled 283,016 votes.
Not happy with the result, Ombugadu and his party, the PDP, filed a petition at the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the polls.
On October 2, 2023, a 3-man panel of the election petition tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, in a split decision of two-to-one, declared Ombugadu, the validly elected governor of Nasarawa State.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja affirmed the election of Abdullahi Sule as Nasarawa State governor, after overturning the earlier decision of the election petition tribunal that removed him from office.
Delivering judgement on the appeal filed by Sule, a three-member panel of the appeal court held that the tribunal was wrong to have declared Ombugadu winner of the election.
Not relenting, Ombugadu appealed at the apex court.
But in a lead judgment, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun, dismissed Ombugadu’s appeal for being ‘devoid of merit, vexatious and incompetent.
The panel unanimously held that all the sister appeals abide by the instant judgment.
More so, the panel ordered parties to bear their respective costs.
Governor Sule was initially declared the winner of the polls by INEC.
But Ombugadu challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes during the contest.
In a split decision of the tribunal on October 2, two members, forming the majority, declared Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion of the only other member affirmed Sule’s victory.
Sule subsequently appealed against the majority decision of the tribunal, and won.
GOMBE
The Supreme Court also dismissed an appeal by Jibrin Barde of the PDP challenging the election of Governor Muhammad Yahaya.
In a lead judgment by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court unanimously dismissed an appeal by Barde for want of merit.
The panel held that Barde’s appeal was incompetent and liable to be dismissed.
Consequently, the apex court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, which had in November, 2023, upheld the election of Yahaya as Governor of Gombe State.
The appellate court had upheld Yahaya’s election after dismissing two separate appeals challenging his declaration as winner of the March 18, governorship election in the state.
KADUNA
Similarly, the Supreme Court affirmed Uba Sani of the APC as the validly elected governor of Kaduna State.
A five-man panel of the apex court unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by Mohammed Ashiru of the Peoples Democratic Party for lacking merit.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment, held that the appellant‘s appeal was frivolous and vexatious and lacked merit.
INEC had declared Sani as winner of the poll after he scored 730, 001 votes to defeat Ashiru, who polled 719, 196 votes in the March 18 governorship election.
KEBBI
The Supreme Court equally dismissed an appeal by the PDP and its candidate, Aminu Bande, seeking to sack Nasir Idris as Kebbi governor.
The apex court held that the appeal lacked merit.
The lead judgment was read by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji.
INEC had in March, 2023 declared the Kebbi gubernatorial election inconclusive owing to “massive vote cancellation and over-voting” in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state.
A supplementary election was held on April 15, 2023.
After the poll, Idris, scored 409,225 votes to beat Bande who got 360,940 votes.
Bande and his party rejected the result and filed a petition before the tribunal, which was dismissed.
The tribunal deducted 1,735 votes from APC while over 900 votes were also taken away from PDP’s results.
The tribunal held that the deduction of the votes would not affect the margin between the election winner and the runner-up, adding that there was no substantial evidence to prove over-voting and irregularities in other polling units.
Also, the appelate court affirmed the governor’s election.
OGUN
The Supreme Court also affirmed the March 18, 2023 electoral victory of Dapo Abiodun of the APC as governor of Ogun .
Justice Inyang Okoro led the five-man panel of the Supreme Court, while the lead judgment was delivered by Justice Tijani Abubakar.
Justice Abubakar held that the appeal “is unmeritorious and deserved to be dismissed, and it is hereby dismissed accordingly”.
The apex court affirmed separate judgments of the lower courts which had dismissed Adebutu’s petition for being grossly incompetent.
“Parties to bear their respective costs, Justice Abubakar held.
The unanimous judgment was on the appeal by the PDP and it’s candidate in the election, Ladi Adebutu.
Adebutu’s appeal sought the nullification of declaration of Abiodun as winner of the election.
Adebutu had challenged Abiodun’s re-election on the ground that the Electoral Act, 2022 was not adhered to, citing corrupt practices and issue of non-qualification.
INEC had declared Abiodun winner of the governorship election after polling 276,298 votes to defeat his closest rival Adebutu, who polled 262,383 votes.
PDP and Adebutu had prayed the Supreme Court to set aside and dismiss the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which had on November 23, affirmed the decision of the Tribunal in upholding Adiodun’s victory.
