- Dismisses SDP, Ardo’s appeal for lacking in merit
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed affirmed the election victory of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State after dismissing the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Umar Ardo, for lacking in merit.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice John Okoro dismissed the appeal after it was withdrawn by counsel to the appellant, Sylvester Ihanobe.
The lawyer was prevailed upon by the court to withdraw the appeal after holding that it was not meritorious.
Having withdrawn the appeal without any objections from counsel to Governor Fintiri, Mahmoud Magaji (SAN), and other respondents, the apex court unanimously dismissed it and affirmed the election of Ahmadu Fintiri as Governor of Adamawa State.
The SDP candidate and his party had filed a petition at the state governorship election tribunal after Fintiri was declared the winner of the poll.
In his petition, Ardo had sought the nullification of Fintiri’s re-election because there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act, corrupt practices, threats, and violence during the exercise.
He averred in his petition that the election conducted by INEC which returned Fintiri as winner, was not in substantial compliance with the amended Electoral Act, 2022.
He said the election was marred by corrupt practices, threats and violence, hence his request on the tribunal to nullify the election.
However, in its judgment, the Adamawa State Governorship Electoral Petitions Tribunal dismissed the petition filed by Umar Ardo, the Social Democratic Party governorship candidate.
Justice T. O. Uloho, who dismissed the petition for being incompetent, stated that the petitioners beside bringing a defective petition which was incongruous and not properly instituted before the court also lumped their case leaving the justice uncertain of the kernel of their petition since they had lumped together corrupt practices and non-compliance and failed to file written statements of names of witnesses they intended to call.
The tribunal further held that since the allegation of corrupt practices could not be credibly substantiated with credible evidence it therefore rendered the petition incompetent, defective and without any probative value, worthless and lifeless.
The tribunal therefore dismissed the petition and awarded the sum of N200, 000 in favour of INEC, Fintiri, Kaletapwa and PDP against the petitioners.
Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s decision, Ardo approached the Court of Appeal in his appeal marked: CA/YL/EPT/AD/GOV/17/2023 urging it to set aside the tribunal’s judgment.
But in its judgment, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, Yola division, which sat in Abuja, affirmed the earlier decision of the tribunal.
The appellate court held that the tribunal was in order in holding that Ardo and his party did not prove the allegations of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the Electoral Act which they made against Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their petition.
Justice Ugochkwu Ogakwu said: “This appeal is bereft of merit. The decision of the trial tribunal, dismissing the appellants’ petition, is hereby affirmed.”