Supreme Court Berates Court of Appeal Over ‘Perverse’ Election Rulings, Reinstates Governors Of Kano, Plateau & Zamfara

*Blames Court of Appeal For Wrongly Sacking Legislators

The Supreme Court yesterday berated some justices of the Court of Appeal over the quality of their judgments in the governorship election petitions brought before them.

Delivering judgment in governorship appeals involving eight states of the federation, the apex court described as perverse the judgments of the appellate court that nullified the elections of governors of Kano, Plateau and Zamfara States.

In three separate judgments the appellate court justices had voided the election of Governors Abba Yusuf, Caleb Mutfwang and Dauda Lawal on grounds of alleged unlawful nomination and sponsorship and deduction of alleged illegal votes.

Justices of the apex court including John Okoro, Emmanuel Agim and Helen Ogunwumiju regretted that despite several decisions of the Supreme Court that tribunals and courts lacked the jurisdiction to dabble into the internal matters of political parties, some justices could still go ahead and sack a winner of an election on grounds of political parties’ primaries, nomination or sponsorship.

Kano State

Delivering judgment in the appeal by Yusuf, a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro, in reversing the sack of the New Nigerian People’s Party’s (NNPP) governor, held that the Court of Appeal was wrong in affirming the judgment of the tribunal which held that Yusuf did not win majority of lawful votes cast at the March election in Kano State.

The apex court in determining the case raised two issues: whether the lower court was right in deducting the 165,000 votes and whether the lower court was right in entertaining the issue of membership of political parties.

According to Justice Okoro, the tribunal was wrong in deducting votes accrued to Yusuf at the election on grounds that the ballot papers were not signed and stamped by officials of INEC.

In addition, the court held that Section 71 of the Electoral Act relied upon by the lower court to deduct the alleged disputed votes does not apply in the instant case.

“The provision does not refer to any regulation or action at the polling units,” he said, adding that the provision was to the exclusion of ballot papers.

Having so held the apex court went ahead to restore the deducted 165,616 votes to reinstate the victory of Yusuf at the governorship election.

“The decision of the trial court cannot stand, all the ballot papers are hereby restored”, adding that the evidence did not show that the appellant interfered with the ballot papers not signed.

On the second issue, the apex court also faulted the Court of Appeal for holding that Yusuf was not a member of the NNPP as at the time he contested the election, adding that the issue of nomination and sponsorship were pre-election matter and outside the jurisdiction of the court.

Besides, Okoro observed that contrary to the appellate court, the tribunal never held that Yusuf was not qualified to contest the poll but that his name was not in the NNPP’s membership register submitted to INEC.

The apex court subsequently set aside the judgment of the two lower courts for being perverse and restored the electoral victory of Abba Yusuf.

INEC had declared Abba Yusuf of the NNPP winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Kano State, having won majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.

But, the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in a judgment in September last year, voided Yusuf 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 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, which INEC declared winner on grounds of unlawful and illegal nomination and sponsorship.

Yusuf and the NNPP in their appeal had 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 was 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 duly elected governor of Kano State.

Plateau State

Similarly, the apex court also set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which voided the election of Governor Mutfwang of Plateau state.

A five-member panel of the court reversed the decision of the appellate court for being perverse on the grounds that the issue of primary election that produced Mutfwang was outside the jurisdiction of the lower court.

Besides the apex court pointed out that the validity of nomination and sponsorship were not valid ground to void an election.

“The court of appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain it”, Agim said, stating that besides, the issue of sponsorship had elapsed long ago, as the law stipulates that a person challenging the nomination or sponsorship of a candidate for an election must institute the legal action within 14 days from which such illegality was said to have been made.

The apex court in addition explained that the petitioners not being members of the PDP have no locus to challenge the primary election of the PDP. “Since they are not members of the PDP, the tribunal and Court of Appeal have no right at all to look into the issue.”

On the issue of whether the order of the Plateau State High Court could affect the National Executive Committee (NEC), the apex court held that the appellate court was wrong in holding that the order affects the NEC.

Besides, Justice Agim stressed that the issue of primary was an internal matters of political parties which both the tribunal and Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction.

Agim, also pointed out that contrary to the claim of the petitioners and the judgment of the appellate court the order of the Plateau High Court was not disobeyed by the PDP as evidence showed that a fresh primary was conducted.

Agim, warned the legal profession especially “the bar and bench to wake up,” or else would soon render itself irrelevant.

“The judgment of the Court of Appeal is set aside, the election of the appellant is restored and the judgment of the tribunal affirming the election of the appellant is hereby affirmed,” he added.

Meanwhile, Presiding Justice, Okoro also reacting, lamented that, “a lot of people have suffered” because of the wrongful judgments of the appellate court which had sacked several legislators who won elections under the platform of the PDP.

Justice Helen Ogunwumiju also berated the appellate court for going into the issue of nomination and sponsorship despite several decisions of the apex court to the effect that a political party cannot challenge the primary election of another.

INEC had on March 20, 2023, declared Caleb Mutfwang of the PDP as the winner of the Plateau governorship election after he scored 525,299 votes, against the 481,370 votes of the APC and its candidate, Nentawe Goshwe.

In its judgment in last September the three-member panel of the Plateau tribunal had 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 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 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 was a pre-election matter, adding that the party did not at any time violated the order of court regarding organising fresh congress.

Zamfara

Like Kano and Plateau, the apex court also restored the election victory of Dauda Lawal at the March 18 governorship election in Zamfara State for not being in tandem with the law.
Delivering judgment in the appeal by Lawal, Justice Agim, who delivered the lead judgment held that the judgment of the appellate court which nullified the judgment of the tribunal that affirmed election of Lawal as governor was perverse and ought to be set aside.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeal have no evidential foundation and it is hereby set aside. The order setting aside the judgment of the tribunal and order for fresh election are hereby set aside.

“The judgment of the tribunal dismissing the petition of the petitioners for lacking merit is hereby affirmed,” Justice Agim held.

According to the judgment the petitioners never provided sufficient evidence to prove allegations of irregularities non-compliance, corrupt practices, adding that petitioners failed to call relevant witnesses such as polling agents, party agents or people who witnessed the election.

Besides, the apex court pointed out that relevant materials like the BVAS, voter register, forms EC40G amongst others were also not presented before the court to prove petitioners case.

INEC had declared Lawal of the PDP governor haven 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 had ordered INEC to conduct a fresh election in three local government areas of the state, where elections had not been 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.

Lagos, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Abia, Cross River

Meanwhile, the apex court affirmed the elections of the governors of Lagos, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Abia and Cross River States. The apex court affirmed the elections after dismissing the appeals against them for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

The apex court held that it found no cogent reason to deviate from the concurrent judgments of the tribunal and Court of Appeal which held that they were lawfully elected as governors.

Reacting to the development, constitutional lawyer and rights activist, Professor Mike Ozekhome, called for a review of the law that restricted National and states houses of assembly elections to the Court of Appeal.

Ozekhome who pointed out that the judgments of the apex court faulting the decisions of the appellate court on the 2023 general elections have vindicated him over his call for reforms in the judiciary,

He lamented the fate of the legislators who lost out because their case ended at the appellate court and was not privileged to get the wrongful judgments against them reversed.

The Appeal Court had sacked legislators of the PDP on account that they emerged from a faulty primary held in disobedience of an order of the Plateau State High Court.

However, the Supreme Court in its judgment held that the appellate court was wrong to have looked into how they were sponsored by the PDP, adding that the order of the State High Court which they had anchored their decision was made outside jurisdiction and therefore of no consequences.

Besides, the apex court added that evidence before it showed that the said order of the High Court was complied with when the PDP went to conduct a fresh election.