The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the governorship elections of six states and unanimously dismissed all the appeals brought before it that arose from the decisions of Court of Appeal.
The Governors who got the nod of Supreme Court are Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe state, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State and
Governor Nasir Idris of Kebbi State.
Overwhelmed with joy, Governor Sule whose election was overturned by Nasarawa State Governorship election Petition Tribunal but reversed by the decision of Court of Appeal urged the opposition to join hand with him now that litigation is over to move the state forward.
In its unanimous judgement on Friday, the Supreme court upheld the Court Appeal decision on the election of Marcy 18, 2023 that produces Governor Sule of All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Sule as winner of the election with 347,209 votes. David Ombugadu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 283,016 votes.
In the lead judgement delivered by Justice Kudirat Ekekere – Ekun the apex court agreed with the November 23, 2023 decision of the Court of Appeal that faulted the verdict of Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had sacked Gov Sule and declared David Ombugadu of People’s Democratic Party , PDP, as the winner of the election.
Justice Kekere-Ekun further agreed with the lower court decision that two documents tendered through the bar at the hearing were caught by limitations provisions of the electoral Act which provides that witness statement on oath must be filed within 21 days after the election.
She also noted that the number of votes from the two documents which were added by the tribunal to PDP votes was not accepted in law as the two documents were tendered through the bar and out of time allowed.
“Having considered all the arguments and issues raised in the appeal I resolved all the issues against the appellant”, she held.
Consequently, the Court found no merit in this appeal and it ought to be dismissed and here by dismissed. The orders made by the Court of Appeal is upheld and this appeal is dismissed for lacking in merit, she added.
She held that three other appeals on same Nasarawa State Governorship election would abide by the decision.
Other justices on the panel: Justices Uwani Abba-Aji, Lawal Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa and Tijani Abubakar agreed with the judgement delivered by Justice Kekere-Ekun.
The Supreme Court also on Friday affirmed the election of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State In an unanimous judgement delivered by Justice John Inyang Okoro the court dismissed three separate appeals filed by All Progressive Congress, APC, Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Labour Party ,LP challenging the election for lacking in merit.
Supreme court upheld the concurrent decisions of Delta State Governorship election tribunal and Court of Appeal Lagos Division which faulted the petition filed by former Deputy Senate President Omo- Agege . The petition didn’t only contained unsubstantiated allegations, but speculative and devoid of merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that Oborevwori of the PDP who polled 360,234 votes was the winner of the governorship election and defeated Omo-Agege of the APC, who secured 240,229 votes.
Other members of the five-member panel of the apex court, Justices Uwani Abba- Aji, Lawal Garba , Tijani Abubakar and Emmanuel Agim agreed with the judgement of Justice Inyang Okoro, in their separate judgements that Omo -Agege , Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party , SDP, were devoid of merits
In respect of governorship election in Ogun State the supreme court dismissed an appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its candidate, Ladi Adebutu against the victory of Gov. Dapo Abiodun of the All progressive party ( APC) .
Consequently, the apex court affirmed the election of Dapo Abiodun as duly elected governor of Ogun State.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Tijani Abubakar held that having dealt with the issues submitted for appeal found that the appeal is unmeritorious and accordingly dismissed it.
Adebutu had asked the court to set aside the election because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially canceled elections in 99 polling units and consequently ordered that fresh elections be conducted in those polling units.
The electoral body then went ahead to declare Abiodun the winner of the March 2023 election, disregarding the margin of the vote.
The governor had won the election with 13,000 votes and the votes from the cancelled polling units were 44,000.
However, The Appeal Court had in November 2023 upheld the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Abiodun as winner of the election.
Dissatisfied Ladi Adebutu appealed to the Supreme Court to remove Governor Dapo Abiodun, who contested and was re-elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from office.
The Supreme Court also affirmed affirms the election of Uba Sani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Governor of Kaduna State.
A five-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, held that the appeal by Mohammed Ashiru Isah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was without merit.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, who read the lead judgment, held that the appeal was unmeritorious.
According to the court the appellants having failed to comply with the provision of Paragraph 18(1) and (3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 in relation to the filing of pre-hearing notice at the tribunal.
The apex court also on Friday affirmed the election of Gov Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe state of APC, Governor Uba Sani , Kaduna State of APC, and Governor Nasir Idris , Kebbi State of APC .