The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved judgement on an appeal seeking to unseat Governor Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State and the governor of Taraba State, Dr Kefas Agbu.
The five-member panel of Justices of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, reserved judgement in the two appeals for a date that would be announced to parties in the matter after briefs filed were adopted by parties.
While Sunday Ameh (SAN), the lead counsel to the appellants, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Saidu Umar, prayed to the court to allow the appeal and grant all the reliefs sought, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), representing governor Ahmad Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking merit.
Olanipekun also prayed the court to uphold the concurrent judgements of the Sokoto State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the election of Aliyu as Sokoto State governor.
Other respondents in the appeal had, while adopting their briefs, prayed the court to dismiss the appeal challenging the declaration of Aliyu as the bona fide winner of the March 18 governorship election that was held in the state.
The Court of Appeal had, in a unanimous judgement delivered last year, affirmed the election of Governor Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State on the ground that it found no reason to disturb the verdict of the Tribunal, which had earlier validated Governor Aliyu’s election victory.
Umar and the PDP had approached the tribunal, alleging that Aliyu and his deputy, Idris Gobir, were not eligible to contest the governorship election.
The petitioners contended that Governor Idris and his deputy did not secure the majority of valid votes that were cast at the election to be declared winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
They alleged that the election was not only marred by irregularities but was also not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Aside from alleging that the governor and his deputy submitted forged certificates with variations of names to INEC in aid of their qualification to contest the election, the petitioners added that electoral fraud occurred in 138 polling units in the state.
However, the three-man panel tribunal, in a judgement it delivered on September 30, dismissed the petition for lacking merit.
The Justice Haruna Mshelia-led tribunal held that the petitioners were unable to prove any of the allegations they raised in the petition, saying that the evidence of most of the witnesses who testified for the PDP and its candidate was incompetent as their statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition as required by law.
The tribunal held that the allegation of forgery, being criminal, ought to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt, a burden it said the petitioners failed to discharge.
More so, the tribunal noted that 70 per cent of the exhibits the petitioners adduced before it was out of context as they relate to the State House of Assembly elections that were conducted on the same date the governorship poll was held.
Consequently, it dismissed the petition and affirmed the outcome of the election.
While upholding the decision of the tribunal, the appellate court held that most of the evidence that the petitioners produced in support of their case was legally inadmissible and that the tribunal was right when it expunged the incompetent exhibits that were either not pleaded or irrelevant to the case that was brought before it.
In another development, the Supreme Court reserved judgement in the appeal challenging the election of Dr Kefas Agbu of the PDP as the governor of Taraba State in the March 18 governorship elections.
The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgement of its three-member panel delivered by Justice Peter Affen, held that the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and its governorship candidate, Prof. Yahaya Sani, who were appellants in the appeal, were not consistent in their petition against the March 18 governorship election.
Justice Affen held that while NNPP and Sani prayed for nullification of the election on the ground of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the duo, in another breath, prayed to the court to pronounce them as winners of the same election on the ground of scoring a majority of lawful votes.
The court held that it is against the law for any litigant, as in the case of the NNPP and its governorship candidate, to blow hot and cold at the same time.
He further held that, having prayed that the election be nullified on account of non-adherence to the Electoral Act, the alternative prayer that they be declared winners of the same election has no legs to stand upon.
Besides, the Court of Appeal held that the record of proceedings transmitted to the court was not complete, thereby rendering their appeal incompetent, and consequently dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.
It would be recalled that the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had, on September 30, dismissed the petition filed by the NNPP and its governorship candidate challenging Kefas Agbu’s election for lacking merit.
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