The Court of Appeal yesterday reversed the sack of the Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, by the State Election Petitions Tribunal, in its judgment delivered on October 2.
The appellate court held that the tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath not front-loaded as required by law to arrive at the ‘unjust conclusion’ of nullifying the election of the governor.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the court of appeal said the tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.
The court also held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the tribunal.
It added that since the statements used by the tribunal to sack the governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, the statements were a product of illegality, with no probate value for a law court to act upon.
The court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that allegations that were not established by law.
Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was null and invalid on the ground that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the tribunal.
According to the court of appeal, the tribunal denied the governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition.
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Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the tribunal invalid.
In all, the court reversed all orders made against the governor and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and affirmed Sule as the lawfully-elected governor of the state.
INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent, David Emmanuel Ombugadu, who secured 283,016 votes.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja also yesterday affirmed the victory of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 gubernatorial election in Gombe State.
A three-member panel of the appellate court, in a unanimous ruling, dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jibrin Barde, seeking to set aside the September 23 judgment of the Gombe State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the victory of Governor Yahaya in the gubernatorial election.
The court held that the appeal lacked merit. “We have considered all the issues and have agreed that the appeal is void of merit,” the court held.
In another development, Nasarawa State Governor, Sule, yesterday embarked on a ‘Thank You’ visit to APN National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, after the appeal court verdict which restored him to power.
Sule, alongside other party stalwarts, paid the visit which was to commemorate the resounding victory affirmed by the court, solidifying his mandate.
The governor was accompanied on the visit by his predecessor, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, and a former APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.
Also, a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Olufemi Ajadi, has petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) over the Court of Appeal judgment on the governorship election in Kano State.
The petition came in the wake of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s resolve to go on with its rally slated for tomorrow in Kano State, despite reports that the NNPP had also scheduled a protest for the same day.
Ajadi, in a petition written to the NJC, urged the Council to investigate the controversy surrounding the judgment.
Recall that the court had affirmed the sack of Kano State governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, from office.
But Ajadi, in the petition made available yesterday, noted that the investigation had become necessary after a paragraph in one of the pages of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Appeal Court judgment indicated victory for Yusuf, even though the court’s announcement on Friday favoured APC’s Nasiru Gawuna.
The NNPP chieftain enjoined the NJC to clarify the matter.
According to him, the investigation had become necessary so as to ensure that the truth is not swept under the carpet.
He said, “Kano is sitting perilously on a keg of gunpowder. The Appeal Court read a statement that favours the APC candidate, but the Certified True Copy showed that Governor Abba Yusuf won his appeal. What is going on in Nigeria?
“Nigerians have lost faith in the judiciary system, but the NNPP will not give up.
“I hereby call on the National Judicial Council to thoroughly investigate this matter and ensure that only the truth is revealed.”
Meanwhile, affirming its decision to stage a rally tomorrow, the All Progressives Congress (APC), at a news conference yesterday at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, said the state is big enough for the two parties to hold their events without any clash.
Speaking on behalf of the stakeholders, the Director-General Gawuna/Garo Campaign Organisation, Rabiu Bichi, said Kano has remained peaceful throughout the eight-year administration of the APC, as evidenced by the increased number of governmental, non-governmental organisations and corporate bodies rushing to Kano to hold their conferences, seminars, symposia, and Annual General Meetings, and importantly, the inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).
He said, however, that the people of Kano have been living in perpetual fear of intimidation and threat to life and property since the assumption of office by the NNPP administration.
“Apart from public property, the state headquarters of our party and properties of some leading figures of the APC were torched, all in the name of celebration.
“The APC as a party that has always been promoting the cause of democracy and the rule of law, rejected the outcome of the election and sought to reclaim its mandate through the appropriate channel as laid down in the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“After filing its case at the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that sat in Kano, the APC patiently pursued it for months up to the pronouncement of the stage where the three-man panel of judges fixed the date for the judgment.
“However, sensing defeat, the NNPP resorted to threatening to kill the judges of the tribunal should the verdict of the court eventually be announced and not in their favour.
The threats by the NNPP government’s cabinet members included among others, the Secretary to the Kano State Government, Baffa Bichi, who forced the tribunal to deliver its judgement via Zoom for fear of their lives.
“The NNPP government then resorted to sponsored street protests, including embarrassingly the one held in London on which millions of naira were said to have been spent. The aim of the protests to further instill fear in the minds of the people failed, as only a few attended.
“The government of Kano state also set aside millions of naira for propaganda in the media and spreading all sorts of lies and also blackmail and harass officials of the former administration.
“Things appear to be getting worse since the embattled leader of the NNPP Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso came back to Kano on Sunday, where he held a meeting of the party’s stakeholders, at the end of which they came up with a line-up of activities that included unleashing of violence to not only eliminate the APC in Kano but also to make it ungovernable in the event of Supreme Court judgment in favour of the APC.
“We have it from reliable sources that they are planning a mass protest on Saturday during which key figures of the APC will be targeted.
“It is on this note that we call on the Kano state police command and other security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities and take appropriate measures to avoid loss of lives and property”.
