Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court in a marathon session yesterday upheld the elections of four governors namely: Okezie Ikeazu of Abia State and his Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi who were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The two other governors are Darius Ishaku, Taraba State and Abubakar Bello, Niger State. Delivering four separate judgments, a seven-man panel of the court, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, held that the appellants’ appeal lacked merit as they failed to prove their cases.
In the appeal by the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State, Chief Great Ogboru marked SC/1455/2019, Justice Centus Chima Nweze, who read the lead judgment held that the APC candidate failed to prove his allegation of irregularities. Justice Nweze upheld the submissions of Damian Dodo, SAN, who appeared for Okowa, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, for the PDP and John Baiyeshea, SAN, for the Independent National Electoral Commission to the effect that the appeal was a waste of the court’s time.
The court further agreed with the submission of the PDP counsel that Ogboru, who challenged elections in 896 polling units, only called witnesses in respect of five polling units, which was grossly inadequate. He further held that Ogboru, who was the petitioner at the tribunal, failed in establishing his case, although he tendered voters’ registers, but failed to link them to his case as required by law.
Justice Nweze said that there was no reason for the Supreme Court to tamper with the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts: the tribunal and Court of Appeal which earlier upheld Okowa’s election. Justice Nweze declared: “I hereby uphold the election of the 1st respondent (Okowa) as the validly elected candidate of Delta State.”Other members of the panel: Rodes-Vivour, Musa Datijo Muhammad, Amina Augie, Paul Galumje, Ejembi Eko, Uwani Abba-Aji agreed with the lead judgment.
In the case of Abia State, Justice Galumje, who read the lead judgment in the Appeal by the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Alex Otti marked: SC/1465/19, agreed with Ikpeazu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) that the appellant failed to prove his case. Justice Galumje held the view that the Otti’s heavy reliance on card reader report, in his attempt to prove his claim of over voting, was not helpful. He noted that the position of the law is that card reader report has not displaced voters’ register in proving over-voting in an election, in view of the provision of Section 46 of the Electoral Act, which provides for manual accreditation.
Justice Galumje held that the petitioner at the tribunal, Otti filed but did not demonstrate the documentary evidence he tendered as required, but merely dumped them on the tribunal. Ikpeazu said that the decision has finally rested the challenge against his re-election.