The Supreme Court has reserved its judgements on appeals that are challenging the outcome of the last governorship elections in Nasarawa and Kebbi States.
A five-member panel of the apex court on Tuesday, led by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, okayed appeals from the two states for judgment after all the parties presented their cases and adopted their briefs of argument.
It will be recalled that the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal had on November 23, reversed the tribunal judgement that sacked Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.
The appellate court held that the tribunal erred in law when it concluded that Governor Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC), did not win the majority of lawful votes cast in the election.
In the lead verdict that was delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onuemenam, the appellate court held that the record before it established that the tribunal relied on legally inadmissible evidence to declare the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), David Ombugadu, as the valid winner of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18.
According to the appellate court, the tribunal wrongly relied on the evidence of eight of the witnesses that were produced by the PDP candidate, whose witness statements on oath were not front-loaded alongside the petition.
It stressed that under Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, Section 132(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, and Paragraphs 4(5) (6) and 14(2) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, every written statement on oath must be filed alongside the petition within the statutorily allocated time.
The appellate court struck out all the evidence and exhibits that were tendered before the tribunal by the eight witnesses.
It held that the evidence of the 12 remaining witnesses who testified for the PDP candidate was not sufficient to sustain the judgement of the tribunal.
More so, the appellate court held that the tribunal was in error when it deducted a total of 1,868 votes that were credited to Governor Sule on the premise that over-voting occurred in four polling units.
It held that the tribunal was wrong in its decision since the petitioners did not provide the necessary documents needed to prove over-voting.
Meanwhile, in the Kebbi state dispute, the PDP and its candidate, Aminu Bande, are urging the apex court to nullify the November 24, 2023, judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which upheld the election of Governor Nasir Idris, who was the flagbearer of the APC.
They contended that the appellate court wrongly dismissed their appeal after it affirmed the decision of the Kebbi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which gave victory to Governor Idris.
The appellate court had maintained that the PDP and its candidate failed to establish all the allegations they raised in their petition.
The court stressed that the allegation of forgery levelled against the Deputy Governor of the State, Abubakar Tafida, was not proved as required by the law.
It further held that the issues of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election could not stand since the appellants failed to show how it substantially affected the outcome of the poll.
It will be recalled that INEC declared the Kebbi State governorship election inconclusive owing to massive vote cancellations and over-voting in 20 of the 21 LGAs in the state.
The Commission subsequently conducted a supplementary election on April 15, at the end of which it declared that Governor Idris of the APC polled 409,225 votes to beat Bande of the PDP, who got 360,940 votes.
Not happy with the outcome of the election, the PDP and its candidate approached the tribunal to challenge the result.
However, Justice Ofem Ofem led the tribunal to dismiss the petition as lacking in merit.
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would communicate its judgement date to all the parties.
