By Sunday Ani
Prior to last week’s series of judgments by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunals (GEPT) across the country, the political mood of the country was anything but pensive. It was a moment of great expectation. The ordinary voters who trooped out to vote for their preferred candidates but had different candidates declared as winners, expected the tribunals to restore their preferred choices. On the other hand, those who were declared winners and their supporters were also expectant that the tribunals would uphold their victories. It was a clear case of different strokes for different folks.
As if the tribunals were waiting to hear a whistle, as soon as the Bauchi tribunal released its ruling on the state’s governorship election, others followed with no fewer than five other states joining the bandwagon. Such other states included Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue and Enugu, among others.
So far, the judgments have drawn varying comments, interrogations, condemnations and commendations from various people depending on which side of the divide one belongs to. Some people have given thumbs up to judgments, insisting that they were true representation of the people’s will, as well as the true position of the law. But, there are others who have come down heavily against the judgments, describing some of them as clear cases of justice and serious threat to democracy. From the states where judgments have so far been released, the rulings in Kano and Enugu States rulings appeared to have attracted more comments and interrogations from Nigerians both home and in the Diaspora.
When on September 20, the governorship election petition tribunal in Kano sacked the incumbent Governor and candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Abba Yusuf, as governor of the state, the news did not go down well with many Kano residents.
In a judgment delivered through zoom, the tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Yusuf. It, however, affirmed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasir Gawuna, as the duly elected governor of Kano State.
Yusuf, who was declared the winner of March 18 governorship elections got 1, 019, 602 votes to defeat his closest rival, Gawuna, who got 890, 705 votes. But, Gawuna and his party were not satisfied with the result, so they filed a petition to challenge Yusuf’s victory.
During the proceeding, the tribunal deducted 165, 663 votes from Yusuf’s votes on the ground that the ballot papers were not stamped, signed and dated by INEC as the law required. The court declared the 165,663 votes invalid, and ordered INEC to issue a certificate of return to the APC candidate.
According to the tribunal, it was the NNPP and Yusuf, who provided materials that were used against them as evidence. “The respondents themselves in my opinion were the ones who helped this court to arrive at the conclusion that this petition is meritorious for the following reasons: The first respondent supplied certified true copies of all the critical electoral documents on the fact of which we found the clear evidence to arrive at the conclusion that the second respondent did not win the March 18 election in Kano State,” the court held.
Soon after the judgment was delivered, there were violent protests across Kano by citizens, who were chanting pro-Yusuf’s slogan. They insisted that they voted for Yusuf and that no court would impose a candidate they never elected on them. The situation almost got out of hands when the protesters became violent, burning and destroying both public and private property worth millions of Naira. The situation forced the state government to quickly impose a curfew on the entire state so as to arrest the ugly development.
Reacting to the judgment, the NNPP’s National Working Committee, NWC, described it as laughable and nothing short of pure miscarriage of justice.
The party’s acting National Chairman, Abba Kawu Ali, vowed that the party would appeal the judgment. He said: “New Nigeria People’s Party, receives with utter incredulity and disbelief, the judgment of the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal on the March 18, 2023, Governorship elections.
“The reported judgment nullified the free, credible and globally acclaimed fair election of our governorship candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and brazenly awarded the election to the APC’s candidate, Nasiru Gawuna.
“The Tribunal arrived at this unjust judgment by unfairly subtracting 165,663 votes from the Governor’s tally in order to enable it to unfairly award the election result to the candidate of the ruling APC. In doing so, the Tribunal obviously affirms its belief that the vote tally of the APC candidate was sacrosanct.
“The judgment of the three-man Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is laughable and nothing but a pure miscarriage of justice. The decision of the Tribunal is a slap on the face of constitutionalism and rule of law and is capable of further discouraging the electorate from having confidence in the judiciary.
“The NNPP recalls with regret that this Tribunal has simply replayed the unholy script of 2019 by overturning the will of the people and awarding election results to those who evidently lost the election. The NNPP will appeal this most unfair judgment. We call on millions of our supporters in Kano and in the rest of the country to remain calm and maintain the peace.”
Also, the party’s national secretary, Dipo Olayoku said parties could not be blamed for INEC’s inadequacies, even as he insisted that the judgment was questionable and against the Electoral Act.
However, counsel to the APC, Sanusi Musa, dismissed insinuation that the APC was desperate to take over Kano State, noting that it was the NNPP officials and state government that had caused problems in the state.
Apart from the APC’s position, there are those who aligned with the party and lauded the judiciary for refusing to be intimidated. One of such persons is a tech analyst, Wale Shaibu, who insisted that the APC would not want to give up Kano State easily. “Just like Lagos, you know how crucial Kano State is to electoral success in the country; I mean for the presidential polls. I don’t believe any party would want to lose the state. So, expect them to do anything to get the state back,” he said.
However, there are others who believe that if the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, had won the presidential election, Yusuf could have survived the APC’s onslaught. This opinion was strongly expressed by a legal practitioner, Ahmed Tanimu, when he said: “Kano overwhelmingly voted for Yusuf, however, the devil that is affecting the mandate is because Atiku did not win the presidential poll. If Atiku had won, he would not be removed from office by the tribunal.”
In a related development, the Tribunal’s ruling in Enugu, which upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah and dismissed the petition of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edoga, is also generating mixed reactions.
The INEC had, on March 22, declared Mbah, the candidate of the PDP as the winner of the March 18, governorship election in the state, after polling 160,895 votes to defeat his closest rival, Edeoga, who got 157,552 votes.
Dissatisfied with the declaration, Edeoga had filed a petition at the tribunal, challenging Mbah’s victory at the poll. Among the grounds of the petition by the LP candidate was that Mbah’s election should be voided for submitting a forged discharge certificate from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
But delivering judgment on Thursday, a three-member tribunal headed by Kudirat Akano dismissed the petition on the ground that Edeoga failed to prove his allegation that Mbah submitted a forged certificate to INEC.
The tribunal ruled that the NYSC discharge certificate, assuming it was indeed forged; was not among the requirements for the qualifications of a person for the office of the governor in line with Sections 177 and 138 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
It held that Mbah was qualified to contest the election even without submitting any NYSC discharge certificate, adding that a Senior Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent is a minimum academic qualification for election for the office of the governor in line with Section 177 of the constitution.
The tribunal argued that since Mbah did not submit the NYSC certificate to aid his qualification for the office, his election could not be voided on the grounds of non-qualification.
Justice Akano also ruled that Edeoga equally failed to prove that there was non-use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during the election in Nkanu East Local Government Area; therefore, the tribunal dismissed the LP’s contention that Mbah did not win a majority of valid votes at the poll.
However, the tribunal agreed that Edeoga proved the allegation of over-voting at some polling units in Amagu Ugbawka, Nkanu East Local Government Area.
But, the LP and its candidate, Edeoga, had rejected the tribunal verdict, and vowed to test it on appeal.
“We wish to convey the acknowledgment by the Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, of the judgment as delivered at the tribunal, and to state our preparedness to challenge the outcome of this judgment at the Court of Appeal, and to all extents as permitted by law,” Edeoga’s spokesman, George Ugwu, said.
For Gov Mbah, it was a judgment well delivered as he applauded the tribunal’s verdict, describing it as a victory for democracy and Enugu State. He also extended a hand of fellowship to the opposition candidates and their political parties, saying that collective efforts were needed to build Enugu State.
Lending his voice to the rulings by the governorship election tribunals across the country, is the president of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, who admitted that he was not in the best position to comment on the validity or otherwise of some of the judgments, since he is not a lawyer but insisted that any judgment that was based on technicality would be upturned at a higher court.
He said: “The issue with the judgment of the tribunal is something I cannot adequately address because I am not a lawyer. And since I am not a lawyer, I wouldn’t want to comment on the validity or otherwise of the judgment since I cannot interpret what the judges have done.
“For now, all we would want to do is to give them the benefit of the doubt and if for any reason, they used technicality rather than law, then of course, it will eventually be overturned by a higher court. So, let us wait and encourage the petitioners to go ahead to a higher court if they are not satisfied. I believe justice will eventually emerge, whether it is that of Kano or Enugu.”
The president of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, noted that some of the rulings so far had reflected the true will of the people. He also commended INEC for conducting a credible election, while calling for further amendments and corrections on the electoral law to ensure better results in future elections.
“So far so good, some of the rulings have actually reflected the true will of the people, while a few others may not stand the test of time on appeal. No election is devoid of electoral malpractices. So, we must commend INEC for a good job, while we look forward to further amendments and corrections because we are learning and we will continue to learn,” he said.
Also, a legal practitioner and former national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Maxi Okwu, commended the Enugu tribunal judges for producing the judgment in record time, but lamented that they turned the judgment upside down.
He said: “I just received a copy of the Enugu judgment and I must commend the tribunal for being so fast. I commend them for the fast production of the judgment, which is the way it should be. But, I have issues with their judgment. As far as I am concerned, they turned the judgment upside down. I have not read the whole judgment but from what I can gather, there are some issues that must be resolved at the Court of Appeal, and ultimately, the Supreme Court.”
Commenting on the judgment by the Kano governorship tribunal, he said even though he has not read the judgment, he could sense danger from what he has read in the media. “For the Kano tribunal, I have not read their judgment but from what I have gathered from the media, it is another recipe for disaster,” he said.
He wondered why APC went to court, when its candidate had accepted defeat and congratulated the winner. “The APC candidate himself has conceded; it was his party that went to court. So, that is a very funny situation. The party is qualified to go to court but the issue is that the man they presented refused to go to court and congratulated the winner. Well, let us wait and see how it goes but as I said, it is not over in most of these areas. For the governorship, there are still two steps to go – the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Let’s see how it goes but the picture is still very worrisome. We have been receiving all sorts of confusing judgments here and there by concurrent panels. Let us see how they will be resolved at a higher level,” he stated.