In the first segment of judgments on eight governorship petitions, the Supreme Court on Friday affirmed Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Bauchi and Kano counterparts, namely Bala Mohammed and Abba Yusuf as duly elected in the March 18, governorship polls in 2023.
Earlier, Sanwo-Olu’s victory was upheld by the tribunal and Appeal Court in the state.
The Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Abdul Azeez Olajide, alias Jandor contended that the name Sanwo-Olu submitted to INEC was different from that contained in his WAEC certificate while the Labour Party candidate in the election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, claimed that the deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, had renounced his citizenship as a Nigerian.
Sanwo-Olu
The court held that Sanwo-Olu’s deputy is a Nigerian by birth.
The court added renunciation of citizenship of a citizen by birth must be registered by the Nigerian president, adding that the appellant did not provide evidence to that effect. It dismissed Jandor contention as “academic”.
The dismissal of the appeal and that of the Labour Party means that Sanwo-Olu is the duly elected governor of Lagos state.
For Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, the apex court ruled that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Sadique Abubakar’s efforts at the two lower courts to unseat Mohammed were not successful.
Abubakar had alleged massive non-compliance with the Electoral Act during the poll at the two courts.
Bala
His petition at the tribunal and appeal at the appellate court were dismissed for lack of merit.
Kano which had been in the eye of the storm following the twist at the Appeal Court where a controversial result was given to the governor but was later denied by the justices which turned around to affirm the tribunal ruling in favour of the APC candidate Nasiru Gawuna.
The Supreme Court affirmed Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, as the duly elected Governor of Kano State.
The main issue questions the NNPP membership of Mr Yusuf, Justice Okoro said.
The APC governorship candidate Nasiru Gawuna had argued that Governor Yusuf’s election ought not to have been sponsored by the party for the 18 March election.
Abba Yusuf
But Justice Okoro said, ” the tribunal never held that Governor Yusuf was not qualified to vie for election as erroneously held by the Court of Appeal,” Justice Okoro says.
The issue of nomination is exclusively the internal affairs of a political party. Therefore, it is not justiceable, Mr Okoro ruled.
In Zamfara, the court held that Dauda Lawal, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, secured the majority of lawful votes and was rightly declared the winner of the governorship contest by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
In the lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court, described the verdict of the appellate court as “perverse”.
It restored the earlier decision of the Zamfara State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which affirmed Lawal’s election victory.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared that Governor Lawal of the PDP polled a total of 377,726 votes to defeat the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, who scored 311,976 votes.
The declaration by INEC was on September 18, 2023, affirmed by the tribunal which held that Matawalle, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, failed to establish his allegation that some polling unit results were excluded by the electoral body.
